Skawennati

{{Infobox artist

| name = Skawennati

| image =

| caption = Skawennati

| field = New Media artist

| training = Concordia University

| awards = imagineNATIVE Best New Media (2009)

Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow (2011)

| website = {{url|www.skawennati.com/}}

}}

Skawennati is a First Nations (Kahnawakeronon) multimedia artist, best known for her online works as well as Machinima that explore contemporary Indigenous cultures, and what Indigenous life might look like in futures inspired by science fiction.{{Cite web|url=https://app.pch.gc.ca/application/aac-aic/artiste_detailler_bas-artist_detail_bas.app?rID=53006&fID=2&lang=en&qlang=en&pID=1&an=Skawennati&ps=50&sort=AM_ASC|title=Artists in Canada|last=Network|first=Government of Canada, Canadian Heritage, Canadian Heritage Information|website=app.pch.gc.ca|language=en|access-date=October 27, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.centrevox.ca/en/artiste/skawennati/|title=Skawennati|website=www.centrevox.ca|language=en-US|access-date=October 27, 2018}}

She served as the 2019 [https://www.mcgill.ca/indigenous/channels/news/indigenous-knowledge-holder-series-2019-295082 Indigenous Knowledge Holder] at McGill University.{{Cite web|url=https://mcgill.ca/indigenous/channels/news/indigenous-knowledge-holder-series-2019-295082|title=Indigenous Knowledge Holder Series 2019|website=Indigenous Studies Program|language=en|access-date=March 23, 2019}} In 2011, she was awarded an Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship which recognized her as one of "the best and most relevant native artists."{{Cite web|url=https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/must-see-nmai-in-new-yorks-we-are-here-the-eiteljorg-contemporary-art-fellowship-exhibit/|title=Must See: NMAI in New York's 'We Are Here! The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship' Exhibit – Indian Country Media Network|last=Leizens|first=Tish|date=May 26, 2012|website=indiancountrymedianetwork.com|language=en-US|access-date=March 18, 2017}}

Skawennati is the co-founder of Nation to Nation and Co-Director with Jason Edward Lewis of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace, [https://abtec.org/ AbTeC], a research network of artists and academics who investigate and create Indigenous virtual environments.{{Cite web|url=http://www.imaginenative.org/exhibitions/skawennati/|title=Skawennati: for the ages|website=imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival|language=en-US|access-date=March 12, 2018}} AbTeC, whose goal is to ensure Indigenous presence in the web pages, online environments, video games and virtual worlds that comprise cyberspace, is based at the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.{{Cite web|url=http://abtec.org/|title=Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace|language=en-CA|access-date=February 15, 2019}}

She is one of the co-founders of daphne, the first Indigenous artist-run centre in Québec, along with Caroline Monnet, Hannah Claus, and Nadia Myre.{{Cite web|last=T'Cha|first=Dunlevy|date=2020-11-19|title=Introducing daphne, Montreal's first Indigenous artist-run centre|url=https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/local-arts/introducing-daphne-montreals-first-indigenous-artist-run-centre|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-04|website=Montreal Gazette|language=en-CA}}

Early life and education

Skawennati, Skawennati Tricia Fragnito, was born in Kahnawake Mohawk reserve in Quebec, home to a sizeable concentration of Mohawk artists and curators.{{cite book|last1=Simpson|first1=Audra|title=Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life across the Borders of Settler States|date=2014|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, NC}} She grew up in the suburb of Châteauguay. In 1992, she earned a BFA in Design Arts and in 1995, a Graduate Diploma of Institutional Administration (Arts Specialization) at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.{{cite book|editor-last1=Taubman|editor-first1=Ellen|editor-last2=McFadden|editor-first2=David Revere|title=Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3|date=2012|publisher=Museum of Art and Design|location=New York|page=168}} Her first position after graduation was with OBORO Artist-Run Centre in Montreal.{{Cite news|url=https://www.straight.com/arts/764706/skawennati-takes-aboriginal-storytelling-cyberspace|title=Skawennati takes aboriginal storytelling into cyberspace|date=August 24, 2016|work=Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly|access-date=March 18, 2017|language=en}}

Work

Through New Media forms, Skawennati addresses history, the future, and change, particularly as they relate to First Nations and Indigenous cultures. In an interview for the exhibition Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3 at Museum of Arts and Design, New York,{{cite web|last1=MARZO|first1=CINDI Di|title=A Redefining Moment in the History of Native American Art, Studio International|url=http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/a-redefining-moment-in-the-history-of-native-american-art|website=Studio International – Visual Arts, Design and Architecture|language=en-gb}} Skawennati states "that there are plenty images of us in the past. Often in those images often we are silent, we are unnamed and I wanted to show something us else. I wanted us to be able to imagine ourselves in the future."{{Citation|last=McMichael Canadian Art Collection|title=Skawennati: Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3 – Museum of Arts and Design, New York|date=April 16, 2013|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMoPU4e4e1k|access-date=March 12, 2018}}

Skawennati is one of the first recipients of the First People's Curatorial Residency grant, established in 1997 by the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2000, she created Imagining Indians in the 25th Century for I. Witness curated by Catherine Crowston at the Edmonton Art Gallery.{{Cite web|url=http://www.skawennati.com/ImaginingIndians/about.htm|title=Skawennati — Imagining Indians in the 25th Century: Credits|website=Skawennati.com|access-date=January 20, 2020}}

= CyberPowWow =

Skawennati's first major online project was CyberPowWow,{{cite web |url=http://cyberpowwow.net |title=CyberPowWow}} an online gathering that occurred several times between 1997 and 2004. It was usually hosted through galleries such as the Walter Phillips Gallery and arts institutions such as the Banff Centre.{{cite web|url=https://tworowtimes.com/arts-and-culture/artist-profile/skawennati-tricia-fragnito/|title=Artist Profile: Skawennati – Kahnawake Mohawk|website=tworowtimes.com|last1=Garlow|first1=Nahnda|access-date=March 5, 2016}} The central thrust of CyberPowerWow was to create an aboriginal territory in cyberspace. CyberPowWow — a chat room functioning as an interactive digital art gallery, allowing people to form communities both online and in real life—provided "a means for indigenous artists and storytellers to secure footing in the digital urban."{{cite journal|date=2015|title="Indigenous in Cyberspace: CyberPowWow, God's Lake Narrows, and the Contours of Online Indigenous Territory"|journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal|volume=39|issue=4|page=56|last1=Gaertner|first1=David|doi=10.17953/aicrj.39.4.gaertner|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4z93m5w3 }} Skawennati worked with Indigenous artists and writers who customized the space with images, scripts, and Indigenous avatars.{{cite journal|date=Summer 2005|title="Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace"|url=https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/canada/aboriginal-territories-cyberspace|journal=Cultural Survival Quarterly|volume=29|issue=2|last1=Lewis|first1=Jason|access-date=July 5, 2016}}

In 2011, she was awarded an Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship which recognized her as one of "the best and most relevant native artists."{{Cite web|url=https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/must-see-nmai-in-new-yorks-we-are-here-the-eiteljorg-contemporary-art-fellowship-exhibit/|title=Must See: NMAI in New York's 'We Are Here! The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship' Exhibit – Indian Country Media Network|last=Leizens|first=Tish|date=May 26, 2012|website=indiancountrymedianetwork.com|language=en-US|access-date=March 18, 2017}}

= TimeTraveller™ =

Her Machinima series TimeTraveller™ has episodes on the death of Mohawk saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the Dakota Sioux Uprising of 1862, the 1990 Oka Crisis, and other watershed events in Indigenous history. This multiplatform work "resist[s] pan-Indian and neo-luddite stereotypes of First Nations peoples."{{cite book|last1=LaPensee|first1=Elizabeth|editor1-last=Ng|editor1-first=Jenna|title=Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds|date=2013|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781441149626|page=207}} Furthermore, it seeks to highlight the "misinterpretation and abuse of Indigenous art and people."{{Cite book|title=We Are Here: The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship 2011|last=Mcnutt and Holland|publisher=University of Washington|year=2011|isbn=9780295991795|location=Washington|pages=backmatter}}

= She Falls for Ages =

Part of the 2017 solo exhibition Tomorrow People, She Falls for Ages retells a Haudenosaunee creation story using sci-fi, the virtual world and a feminist lens. Her version included a futuristic aesthetic and bright colours, created using the Second Life program as a medium.{{Cite news|title=Reviews|last=Huard|first=Adrienne|date=2017|work=Canadian Art|page=122}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.oboro.net/en/activity/tomorrow-people|title=Tomorrow People {{!}} OBORO|website=www.oboro.net|access-date=February 15, 2019}}

Selected exhibitions

Storybook Story. Art Gallery of Calgary (2001)
Rashid & Rosetta. Co-presented by Oboro and Studio XX, Montreal (2009){{Cite web|url=http://www.oboro.net/en/activity/web-project-launch-rashid-and-rosetta|title=Exhibition|website=www.oboro.net|language=en|access-date=March 17, 2018}}
Rashid & Rosetta 2. HTMlles Festival, Montreal (2010)
Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years. Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, MB (2011){{Cite web|url=https://plugin.org/exhibitions/2011/close-encounters-next-500-years|title=Exhibition|website=plugin.org|language=en|access-date=September 23, 2017}}
We Are Here! Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York (2012)
Ghost Dance: Resistance. Activism. Art. Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto (2013)
TimeTraveller™. Niagara Artists Centre (2014){{Cite web|url=http://nac.org/exhibitions/skawennati-time-traveller/|title=Exhibition|website=nac.org|access-date=May 21, 2016}}
Avant Canada. Brock University (2014){{Cite web|url=https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2014/10/canadas-avant-garde-set-to-storm-brock-university-next-week/|title=Canada's avant-garde set to storm Brock University next week|website=The Brock News, a news source for Brock University|access-date=May 21, 2016}}
Memories of the Future. SAW Gallery, Ottawa (2015){{Cite web|url=https://www.sawvideo.com/event/memories-future|title=Exhibition|website=www.sawvideo.com|language=en|access-date=March 17, 2018}}
Now? Now!. Biennale of the Americas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Colorado (2015)
Tomorrow People. Oboro, Montreal (2017){{Cite web|url=http://www.oboro.net/en/activity/tomorrow-people|title=Exhibition|website=www.oboro.net|language=en|access-date=January 18, 2018}}
Skawennati: For the Ages. V Tape, Toronto (2017){{Cite web|url=http://www.vtape.org/event/skawennati-for-the-ages|title=Exhibition|website=www.vtape.org|language=en-US|access-date=March 17, 2018}}
Teiakwanahstahsontéhrha’ | We Extend the Rafters. VOX, Centre de l'image contemporaine, Montreal (2017){{Cite web|url=http://www.centrevox.ca/en/exposition/skawennati-teiakwanahstahsontehrha-we-extend-the-rafters-childrens-exhibition/|title=exhibition|website=www.centrevox.ca|language=en-US|access-date=January 18, 2018}}
Owerà:ke Non Aié:nahna | Filling in the Blank Spaces. Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal (2017){{Cite web|url=http://ellengallery.concordia.ca/exposition/combler-les-espaces-vides/?lang=en|title=Exhibition|website=ellengallery.concordia.ca|language=en-US|access-date=March 17, 2018}}
On Desire. B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt, Germany (2017)
From Skyworld to Cyberspace. McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario (2019){{Cite book |last1=Lauder |first1=Adam |url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/32823/ |title=Exhibition|last2=Smith |first2=Matthew Ryan |last3=Cross |first3=Wahsontiio |last4=Longboat |first4=Maize |last5=Gregory |first5=Helen |date=2019 |publisher=McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario |others=Adam Lauder, Matthew Ryan Smith, Wahsontiio Cross, Maize Longboat, Helen Gregory |isbn=978-0-7714-3132-6 |location=London, Ont. |language=en}}
Game Changers: Video Games and Contemporary Art, MassArt Art Museum, Boston, Massachusetts (2020){{Cite web|last=Reynolds|first=Pamela|date=July 28, 2020|title=Exhibition|url=https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/07/28/virtual-art-exhibits|access-date=2021-03-31|website=www.wbur.org|language=en}}
Radical Stitch, MacKenzie Art Gallery (2022).{{cite web |title=Exhibitions |url=https://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/exhibition/radical-stitch |website=www.artgalleryofhamilton.com |publisher=AGH |access-date=27 March 2023}}

Curatorial Work

Owerà:ke Non Aié:nahne / Combler les espaces vides / Filling in the Blank Spaces. Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal (2017).{{Cite web|url=https://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2017/10/30/indigenous-digital-art-leonard-bina-ellen-art-gallery.html|title=Indigenous digital art — past, present and future|website=www.concordia.ca|access-date=March 12, 2018}}

Awards

She is a multiple award winner, particularly for her project TimeTraveller™, a nine episode Machinima series that used science fiction to examine First Nations histories.{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/arts/the-buzz/2013/10/machinima-art-series-revisits-oka-crisis-moments-in-native-history.html|title=Machinima art series revisits Oka Crisis, moments in native history|last1=Ore|first1=Jonathan|website=CBC News|publisher=CBC|access-date=March 5, 2016}} In 2009, she was awarded Best New Media winner at ImagineNATIVE for TimeTraveller™.{{cite web|title=ImagineNATIVE|url=http://www.imaginenative.org/page.php?p=awardnewmedia&y=2009|website=ImagineNATIVE|access-date=March 5, 2016}}

In 2011, Skawennati was a 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow and in 2013 was again a Best New Media winner, this time with the AbTeC collective for Skahiòn:haiti – Rise of the Kanien’kenhá:ka Legends.

In 2015 she represented Canada at the Biennial of the Americas.{{cite web|url=http://biennialoftheamericas.org/2015-biennial-of-the-americas-announces-internationally-renowned-artists-featured-in-this-years-festival/|title=2015 Biennial of the Americas|website=Biennial of the Americas|access-date=March 5, 2016}}

In 2020, she was awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.{{Cite web|last=Dunlevy|first=T'Cha|date=September 3, 2020|title=Montreal Mohawk artist Skawennati awarded Smithsonian fellowship|url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-mohawk-artist-skawennati-awarded-smithsonian-fellowship|access-date=2021-03-31|website=montrealgazette|language=en-CA}}

References

External links

[http://www.skawennati.com/ Skawennati's webpage]
[http://www.timetravellertm.com/ TimeTraveller™]
[http://skins.abtec.org/game_.html Collection of AbTeC video games]
[http://abtec.org/ AbTeC – Aboriginal Territories in CyberSpace]

Category:Canadian digital artists

Category:Canadian Mohawk women artists

Category:21st-century Canadian women artists

Category:Living people

Category:Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke people

Category:Women digital artists

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)