Camden Art Centre and New Curators present akâmi-, the first major UK institutional exhibition of Duane Linklater, an Omaskêko Ininiwak multimedia artist based in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Curated by the second cohort of New Curators fellows, the exhibition interrogates power, individual and collective identity, absence and memory within contemporary Indigenous life and institutional practices.
akâmi- features a new ceramic commission created with Sugpiaq artist and choreographer Tanya Lukin Linklater, under the collective name Grey Plumes, a recent painting series and a sculptural sound installation. It also includes an installation acquired by Tate, but not yet seen in the UK, which incorporates a video by his son, Tobias Linklater and objects made by Linklater’s grandmother, Ethel (Trapper) Linklater borrowed from the Thunder Bay Art Gallery in Northern Ontario, confronting questions of ownership and the responsibilities that accompany it.
akâmi- is Omaskêko Cree for “across”, with multiple figurative and literal meanings that disrupt Western notions of temporality, confronting past, present and future simultaneously to create space for Indigenous presence in every moment. In different ways, the works engage with enduring legacies of colonialism, while also exploring new possibilities for museum structures, questioning distinctions between fine art and craft and the concept of the solo exhibition itself. By incorporating work from his family members in the exhibition, Linklater challenges the singularity of authorship and highlights the importance of community and intergenerational transmission of knowledge and creativity.
