Financial Basket, 2020

SnowBank and other Investments,(series) 2020

Acrylic mounted photo paper, silk ribbon, metal chain, birchbark, dyed deer tail, laser etching. 


This series of images grew from a particularly snowy winter in 2019. With a 6 foot snowbank outside my deck, from large snowfalls sliding off of my houses’ metal roof, I decided to use the snowbank as a projection screen. Using plain text the projections onto the snowbank are an artistic act in continuum with claiming land through usage. Usage as an Indigenous artistic act versus ‘traditional’ activity like hunting or gathering extends the argument of land rights as decolonial aesthetics. The projections meditate on value and Indigenous land rights through short inverted meme-like word usage and seasonal imagery. The right-wing labeling of emotional/leftist liberals as ‘snowflakes’ is brought to bare with the impact of the gathering of snowflakes into powerful and weighty snowbanks. Other images in the series reflect relationships and learning from the artists home territory in Secewpemcúl̓ecw. Basing her artistic practice and life in her home territory for the last 10 years Willard works with concepts like BUSH Gallery as an investment in her land, her family, community and ancestors.