Starting March 2nd, 2024
To celebrate Nuit Blanche in Montreal, our team has prepared a special window display to enjoy after dark. The theme of this micro exhibition revolves around notions of eroticism and sexuality in Indigenous cultures. Here are the different subjects you can enjoy in our window installation on Crescent Street.
Sedna
These works from the permanent collection of La Guilde, invite you to enter into a universe where many mythological entities meet and coexist. Sedna is a central figure in Inuit cosmology, known as the Goddess of the Sea and deep waters.
Although several versions of this story exist, the story of the young girl whose fingers were cut off by her father because she refused to obey him, is present in all of the Arctic Circle. Her fingers having become marine animals, respecting Sedna was vital to ensuring the survival of the Inuit. Disrespecting Sedna or her children could cause her to hold you in her hair, which would have mortal consequences! In which case, only a Shaman can visit her with a sacred comb to detangle her mane.
Many artists imagine this divinity and represent her according to their perspective. Sedna pregnant or as a young woman braiding her hair reflects the gendered codes associated with femininity.
Beader and Dancer
Femininity is an important element of the indigenous cultures of the country. Matriarch and source of life, it is represented over the years through different forms. In the collective imagination of many First Nations, the feminine archetype of the ceremonial dancer (pow wow) borders on both the sacred, through her respect for ancestors and spirituality, and desire, through her grace and beauty.
L’artisane et la danseuse occupent toutes deux un rôle de premier choix dans la vie autochtone, car elles permettent une continuation des traditions et de la culture après l’arrivée du christianisme et des premiers pensionnats. Toutefois, la féminité autochtone reste aujourd’hui complexe, symbole sacré objectifié par la violence du génocide culturel.
Dreams
Dreams have a particularly important place in the Inuit imaginary. It is the place of all possible transformations, free from any constraints. The dream is intimately connected to shamanism since it allows communication with other worlds and to access revelations of the future.
Traditionally, dreams took on their full meaning by being shared with the community. Keeping dreams to oneself could even represent a danger to the health of the dreamer. This practice of sharing dreams was eroded with the arrival of Christianity, a fact regretted to this day by some Inuit of all generations. The trauma of sedentarisation is still very present.
Concept and texts: Émy Fontaine, Sharon Fontaine-Ishpatao, Guillaume Pelletier & Sawyer Tomlinson