A member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) First Nation in southern Alberta, Canada, thrilling multi-disciplinary artist Adrian Stimson pushes back against the genocidal urges of colonialism by embracing a raft of performative identities to survive and thrive.
This video and photography exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre includes depictions of Buffalo Boy and the Shaman Exterminator taken at the creatively out-there Burning Man Festival in Nevada's the Black Rock Desert.
Buffalo Boy parody's the all-American imagery of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West shows; a Two-Spirit being simultaneously 'Indian' and cowboy. The Shaman Exterminator subverts Arnie's Terminator, embracing spirituality. You'll also spot his latest persona Naked Napi, based on the historical Blackfoot Trickster character Napi or "Old Man".
Stimson, who endured the enforced removal of Canada's residential school system, targeting First Nations children, says the Biennale's theme, Nirin (edge), "The colonial world will always see me as the other, the outsider, and the problem needing to be dealt with. However, I am Niitsitapi, a Blackfoot person living in this world today and my centre transcends the colonial project.”
