SHOW OPENING: between the rocks and flowers, i think of you, by Emily Critch
(@emilycritchart), Friday, April 8th, 7-9pm, St. Michael's Printshop
between the rocks and flowers, i think of you is an exhibition by Emily Critch that considers her inherited histories from her home territory of Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (the Bay of Islands, Newfoundland). Employing intimate and labour-intensive processes of creation like printmaking and stitching, she honours the lands and waters in Elmastukwek where her ancestors lived. She mediates her embodied family histories, memories and experiences through repetitive modes of image creation. In each detailed constellation of indelible flowers against the rocks, she uses repetition and the multiple as a method of participating in cultural transmission, storytelling, and remembering.
The work from this exhibition was produced during a year-long residency as the 2020-21 Don Wright Scholar at St. Michael’s Printshop, with generous support from the 2020 VANL Cox & Palmer Pivotal Point Grant and ArtsNL.
Emily Critch is a Mi’kmaw and settler artist, curator, and writer from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk Territory (Bay of Islands, NL). She received her BFA in Visual Arts from Memorial University of Newfoundland (2018). She has exhibited her work at Grenfell Art Gallery, The Rooms, Eastern Edge, Hafnarborg (Hafnarfjörður, Iceland), and St. Michael’s Printshop. Her art practice has been supported by ArtsNL, and has been the recipient of several awards including the Ellen Rusted Award for Print Media, the 2020 VANL Cox & Palmer Pivotal Point Grant, longlisted for the 2021 Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award, and the 2020-2021 Don Wright Scholarship at St. Michael’s Printshop. Her work has been featured in publications such as Riddle Fence, Future Possibile: An Art History of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Visual Arts News. She is currently based in St. John’s, NL working remotely as the Program Coordinator with the Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones, and the 2021-23 Adjunct Curator with the Owen’s Art Gallery.