Skawennati
| Skawennati | |
|---|---|
| Education | Concordia University |
| Known for | New Media |
| Awards | Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow (2011) |
| Website | |
Skawennati (Skawennati Tricia Fragnito) is a Mohawk multimedia artist, best known for her video games, machinima and costume design, with an emphasis on online works exploring contemporary indigenous culture.
Early life and education
Skawennati earned a BFA in Design Arts and a Graduate Diploma of Institutional Administration (Arts Specialization) at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.
Career
Skawennati's first major oinline project was the CyberPowWow, an online gathering that occurred several times between 1997 and 2004, usually hosted through galleries such as the Walter Phillips Gallery and arts institutions such as the Banff Centre.[1] 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.[2] In 2015 she represented Canada at the Biennial of the Americas.[3]
She is the co-founder of Nation to Nation and Co-Director, with Jason E. Lewis, of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research network based at Concordia that holds workshops on Indigenous virtual environments.[1] 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. She was the curatorial resident at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff and is a former board member at Oboro, an artist-run centre in Montreal.
Themes
Through New Media forms, Skawennati addresses history, the future, and change, particularly as they relate to Aboriginal cultures.
Work
- TimeTraveller™ - timetravellertm.com (2008-2013)
- CyberPowWow - cyberpowwow.net (1997-2004)
Major exhibitions
- Biennale of the Americas. Denver, Colorado (2015)
- Ghost Dance: Resistance. Activism. Art. Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto (2013)
- We Are Here! Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York (2012)
- Storybook Story. Art Gallery of Calgary (2001)
Awards and nominations
Skawennati was a 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow, and a Best New Media winner at ImagineNATIVE in 2009 for TimeTraveller™[4] and in 2013 with the AbTeC collective for Skahiòn:hati – Rise of the Kanien’kenhá:ka Legends.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 Garlow, Nahnda. "Artist Profile: Skawennati – Kahnawake Mohawk". Two Row Times. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
- ↑ Ore, Jonathan. "Machinima art series revisits Oka Crisis, moments in native history". CBC News. CBC. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
- ↑ "2015 Biennial of the Americas". Biennial of the Americas. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
- ↑ "ImagineNATIVE". ImagineNATIVE. Retrieved 5 March 2016.