Tiffany shaw
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tiffany Shaw is a Métis architect, artist and curator based in Alberta. She holds a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) University, a Masters in Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and is currently working at Reimagine Architects. Shaw has exhibited widely including the Architecture Venice Biennale, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Pier 21, Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the Chicago Architecture Biennial. She has been the recipient of multiple public art commissions such as Edmonton's Indigenous Art Park and Winnipeg’s Markham Bus Station. Among her public art projects Tiffany has produced several notable transitory art works and is a core member of Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective.
Oscillating between digital and analogue methodologies Shaw’s work gathers notions of craft, memory and atmosphere. Her practice is often guided by communal interventions as a way to engage a lifted understanding of place. While born in Calgary and raised in Edmonton, Shaw’s Métis lineage derives from Fort McMurray via Fort McKay and the Red River.
my children, my mother, her mother and their mother, and their mother, and their mother, and their mother..... nitawasimisak, nikawiy, okawiya ekwa okawiwawa, okawiyiwa, ekwa okawiyiwa ekwa okawiyiwa.....
Sir Winston Churchill Square
Tiffany Shaw, my children, my mother, her mother and their mother, and their mother, and their mother, and their mother..... nitawasimisak, nikawiy, okawiya ekwa okawiwawa, okawiyiwa, ekwa okawiyiwa ekwa okawiyiwa....., 2023, Woven Reflective Mylar
ARTIST STATEMENT
This work is a knitted series about my family which I am calling grief work. I started making this work shortly after my mother passed in 2020 as a way to physically work through my grief. Titled my children, my mother, her mother and their mother, and their mother, and their mother, and their mother..... nitawasimisak, nikawiy, okawiya ekwa okawiwawa, okawiyiwa, ekwa okawiyiwa ekwa okawiyiwa..... this work is about the generations in my family, from those who came before me, to those who will be after, and the trauma, love, and connection that passes with each generation. This work encourages you to sit upon it to rest and relax. Though it might be noisy and a bit awkward to find a resting spot upon it, my hope is that it will ultimately support and comfort you as well as provide shade.
