This event has been cancelled.
Marie Watt’s lecture will explore many of the topics found in her work, including story, biography, Haudenosaunee protofeminism, and Indigenous teachings, as well as the intersection of history, community, and storytelling.
Artist statement from Marie:
I am a member of the Seneca Nation (Turtle Clan), and my work draws on images and ideas from Haudenosaunee protofeminism and Indigenous teachings. My practice is interdisciplinary, incorporating printmaking, painting, textiles, and sculpture. I conduct both solo and collaborative projects, but in all of them I explore how history, community, and storytelling intersect.
A significant part of my practice involves setting a multi-generational and cross-disciplinary table for conversation and collaboration. This can take the form of sewing circles, printing circles, community-built sculptures, or crowd-sourced participation via social media. I believe that exchanging ideas like this, one story at a time, can help us understand and strengthen what I call our companion relationships – our connection to place, to one another, to animals, and to the universe.
Many of the materials I use — blankets, beads, tin jingles, steel I-beams — are associated with my Seneca heritage. Conceptually, I’m drawn to their DNA and deploy them as a vehicle for understanding history, place, and community. Language, both literal and metaphorical, also weaves through my practice even as I struggle with the historical baggage it carries, and its impact on Indigenous communities. Twinned words such as “Mother Mother,” “Deer Deer,” and “Sky Sky” open up space and create urgency, hurling a call longer and louder in space, back to our ancestors, and forward to future generations.
Image of work: Marie Watt, Forest Shifts Light (Sequoia, Crest, Canopy), 2025, Jingles, twill tape, mesh, Dimensions variable.
This talk is presented as part of NSCAD’s Visiting Artist program, supported by the Daglish Family Foundation Visiting Artist Fund.
