Every Sunday, for the duration of the traveling community art exhibition Reconciliation: What does it mean to you? – from August 13 to December 2, 2017 – to honour the complexity of the task, I will publish a post about my process of decolonization.
I am joining the resistance…
October 18, 2017
Now that the exhibit is traveling, that the Community Listening Circle has ended, what am I left with? A new state of mind that is looking at my old environment with new eyes.
When I saw this image on a wall in my neighborhood a few days ago, I had to recognize that it was resonating quite loudly with me. Strangely, because I had already seen this young girl with her scarf and her gun, and each time I walked straight by showing no interest. What was different this time? Why was I compelled to create a piece around her?
I am the type of person who would never resort to violence and would never make the promotion of guns, how come I could not avoid a conversation with her this time?
As I was working on this piece, what I saw was that the gun was mirroring the violence she was facing, the violence of colonialism, against Indigenous women, girls and trans, against the Earth. A bold statement to shock our psyche, to snap us out of our denial, our refusal to acknowledge the truth.
This gun meant: “Look at me, look carefully, you cannot rape, murder, steal again and again, believing that I will not face you. This has to stop and be sure that I am ready to take proper actions.”
The gun, here, is the fierceness of her commitment.
Typo or mistake, let me know, I will be very grateful
mari.e cornellier 