Coyote School – the story behind the title
June 15, 2017
The response to our summer exhibition, Coyote School, has been tremendous. We were delighted to have 200+ guests join us for opening celebrations last week, as well as the Hamilton Spectator feature story, Canadian Art Magazine top art pick, and McMaster Daily News Story. Thank you all!
At the opening, Curator Rhéanne Chartrand explained the origins of the exhibition title:
“Last September, when I was selecting art by established Indigenous artists for the exhibition Unapologetic, I spoke to Edward Poitras about his iconic Coyote assemblages. Edward and his practice have long been linked to the Trickster or Coyote (See Canadian Art Magazine, Edward Poitras: The Trickster, 1995). At some point in the conversation, Edward’s thoughts trailed off to literal coyotes, which he could hear from his house on the rez, stating that they’d been particularly loud lately and he mused that it must be the time of year when the young ones are sent off to find their own place in the world – coyote school or something like that. ‘Coyote School’ – it just clicked for me; it felt like the perfect phrase to encapsulate not only the Trickster spirit embodied in both Edward’s work and the work of all the artists in both Unapologetic and Coyote School, but also the on-going transmission of cultural and artistic knowledge taking place within Indigenous art through kinships. And so the title stuck, and I couldn’t be happier about the multiple meanings and resonance it carries in relation to the exhibition, and Indigenous art at large.”
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