SHARP TEETH | Curated by SANAA HAMAYUN
Participating artists: Emily Riddle, Faith Goodman, Jasmine Piper, Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet, Raneece Buddan & Rihab Essayh.
September 12 – October 17, 2024
ODD Gallery, Dënäkär Zho | KIAC
Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in territory, Dawson City, Yukon
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, September 12nd at 7PM
Curatorial Statement
Sharp Teeth investigates two related avenues of consideration: First – the use of whisper networks amongst racialized women as a form of relationship building, and the way feminine language is used to de-legitimize the work done in these spaces. Second – how art/ curatorial relationships can be re-imagined to embody some of the reciprocal care of these racialized spaces in order to develop a better framework for curation/ art making that breaks down the current systems of patriarchy/ White Supremacy.
This body of work satirizes the use of feminine visual aesthetics in pop culture, thinking about how feminine coded aesthetics often relegate feminine relationships to catty, gossipy, frivolous things, and how this package can be reclaimed for a body of work that is on the surface very bright, campy and mean, while also holding tender relationships. Ones that are rooted in friendship and care, ones that hold power despite being dismissed and devalued. Exploring how to bring these relationships out of the margins, this work leans into the frivolity, while also celebrating the deep and long lasting nature of these relationships, without giving away the secrets held within them.
Artist Biographies
Jasmine Piper is an emerging artist and arts administrator in Mohkinstsis, with family ties all across the prairies from Cold Lake First Nations to Peace River county. She is always aspiring to be a better drum maker, fisherwoman and beader. Her artwork includes researching decolonization, Indigenizing art and exploring reconnection to her Nehiyaw and Métis ancestors by connecting with the supernatural. Aliens, magic and medicine are common themes played with throughout her work.
Her practice is intertwined with a passion to support fellow artists, curators and arts organizers by collaborating with them to create equitable programming and opportunities for people of marginalized identities.
Raneece Buddan is a Jamaican visual artist who resides in Treaty 6 territory, Amiswaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). She immigrated to Canada in 2015 and completed her BFA in Art and Design with Distinction at the University of Alberta in 2020.
Raneece’s artwork has been exhibited throughout Alberta and internationally through Artsy and in New York and Vermont. She has completed Artist Residencies in Edmonton, Alberta, Salem, New York and most recently in Mandelieu-La-Napoule, France.
Rihab Essayh was born in Morocco and raised in Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal, and is an interdisciplinary artist whose large-scale, immersive installations create spaces of slowing down and softening. Her practice is informed by her ethos of soft futurism; a sensibility that uncompromisingly imagines new and equitable futures that identifies vulnerability and interdependence as pillars of collective liberation and wellbeing. She completed her MFA at the University of Guelph in 2022.
Emily Riddle (Okimâw Pipikwan Iskwêw) is Nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation (Kipohtakaw). She is a writer and textile artist based in Amisko Waciw Wâskahikan (Edmonton, Canada). In 2022, she released her first full length poetry collection, The Big Melt which won the Griffin Poetry Prize Canadian first book award. Her textile work is about the intersection of expansive ecosystem of Nehiyaw worldview, navigating institutions in the age of ‘reconciliation’, and Indigenous histories of the prairies. Emily Riddle is a dedicated Treaty 6 Descendant and a semi-dedicated Edmonton Oilers fan.
Faith Goodman is a mixed media artist from Toledo Ohio. Her work dissects the definition of race within American society through the lens of stereotypes, caricature, and Western European imagery.
Juxtaposing the Black minstrel figure with Western iconography, Goodman sets out to create unusual and sensual pieces that tackle the feeling of being caught between two races. Her work deals with themes of isolation, religion, and ingrained identity.
Goodman completed her MFA at the Columbus College of Art & Design and obtained her BFA at the University of Toledo. Her work has been exhibited in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist practicing in amiskwaciwâskahikan on Treaty 6 Territory. She grew up West of the city near the hamlet of Calahoo where she lived with her relatives on scrip land. Her family lines are Cree and Métis descending from Michel First Nation, as well as Dutch and mixed European.
Kiona works in painting, printmaking, and drawing, recollecting personal stories of grief and tenderness. Her practice uses a non-linear telling of her memories through narrative work as a form of diaristic archiving. It draws from feelings of loss and enfranchisement, but also from deep belly laughter, and a gentle fondness for where the histories between herself and her family overlap and disperse.
Working alongside other artists in initiatives of community care, Kiona co-organizes Making Space in partnership with Sanaa Humayun. She likes visiting her moshom on the farm, and gossiping with her mom, relatives, and friends on the prairies.
Sanaa Humayun (she/her) an artist, writer, & curator, living and working in Hamilton, ON. Her practice thinks about non-narrative story telling, secret keeping, and play and joy as acts of resistance. She primarily works in textile and paint, and is an avid weaver. Her curatorial practice considers how curatorial frameworks can be reconsidered to prioritise care and reciprocity. She is passionate about fostering community, through means of food, laughter, and an unapologetic love of gossip.
Along with Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet, Sanaa co-organizes Making Space – a peer mentorship group for early-career BIPOC artists. She likes to laugh a little too loudly with her friends in public places.