OPENING RECEPTION: PREY TO GATHER
Join us to celebrate the opening of our first exhibit in the newly launched Corner Gallery. Featuring textile works by Shasta McCoy, this show opens a dialogue about feminine wisdom, body autonomy, sacrifice and consent from the point of view of prey animals through immersive textural experiences.
Opening Night Schedule:
6:30 PM: Doors open
7:00 PM: Artist talk with Shasta McCoy
9:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Afterparty at the Canmore Legion with DJ Mihajic
Light refreshments, including alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, will be served.
About the exhibit
Herds rely on generational knowledge of their ancestors to learn the routes through the land that are abundant and nourishing. The mythos of many pre-colonial traditions reveal many deities with distinct attributes of prey, i.e. hooves, horns and antlers, the messages of whom have been often misrepresented or silenced by monotheism. This silencing and demonization of old deities is intertwined with the erasure of female divinity, worth, wisdom, and autonomy and underpins the ruthlessness inherent in colonization. Shasta creates art rooted in feminine wisdom and radical inclusion as a deliberate act of resistance to a world that seeks to strip women of their sovereignty and inherent power. Woven throughout the exhibit are Shasta’s Woolscapes, a collection of abstract felting, weaving, and macrame, presenting themselves as landforms with interwoven systems and networks. Each Woolscape results from her intimate conversation with the materials… twists, knots, tangles and plots encoding narrative. The found objects in the Woolscapes are held in tension, affording these objects an elevated position, often with precarious attachments. This dance with fragility echoes the theme of vulnerability while flirting with the dynamic nature of balance.
About the artist
Shasta McCoy is a fibre artist who engages wool as a textile and sculptural medium along with wood, stone, metal, found objects and other fibers. Shasta’s relationship with fibre wool extends back to her childhood in east Tennessee on a small farm with sheep where she was active in 4-H and will forever be the 1994 Tennessee Sheep and Wool Queen. Shasta lives in Golden, the traditional territory of the Secwépemc and Ktunaxa Nations, where her art practice intertwines mythos and feminine wisdom. Her work explores archetypes of the divine feminine/masculine, cyclical rhythms, healing, and connection to land and water.
Please register using the sidebar to confirm your attendance. This event is by donation; you can donate with cash or card in person, or in advance at this link. We ask that you make an additional suggested $10 donation at the afterparty to support the Legion.