artist statement

I am interested in the horizontal line, both as a formal motif and as a symbol of the divisions which separate and bind us: the border crossing from one territory to another, the written text which manifests law, and the barricade which defies it.

With Indian Act, the horizontal line is used as a method of erasing and abstracting parts of Canada's Federal Legislation pertaining to its “Indians.” Monumental in scale, this work consists of sewing over each of the 56 pages of the annotated Indian Act (Chapters 1-5) with red and white glass trade beads. The white beads replace the words and the red beads, the space between them. The overall effect of the beaded page resembles a visual and tactile language, something akin to Morse code or Braille. However, beading the Act also speaks of a socio-political activity; each page is pierced by a needle and like a scar bears the stitch, a reminder of its path across the page, and generations of conditioned and controlled Indian lives. It is from this political standpoint that the piece has become a communal effort, attracting over 230 people to bead in an act of rebellion, rewriting and translation, thus obscuring the Law and rendering it finally illegible.

.- Nadia Myre