Gail Tremblay, Mi'kmaq and Onondaga, born 1945
When Ice Stretched On for Miles, 2017
Artist and poet, Gail Tremblay created this handwoven basket, featuring a traditional style of weaving while using unorthodox materials, titled When Ice Stretched on for Miles. Woven throughout the basket is 16-millimeter film footage that depicts a documentary about the indigenous way of life in the Canadian Arctic. The irony in this documentary is that due to environmental harm by humans, many changes have occurred to indigenous life. The material choices the artist made when creating the basket were clearly intentional, as Gail is merging native past with the challenges of the present day—demonstrated by the traditional weaving style, but the use of modern materials and aesthetics. Gail recently stated in an interview, “Plants are dying, animals are dying, all kinds of things are out of balance … I try to address these issues in my work because people do need to think about them.” Art is an important form of communication for Gail, and it is a clear way to spread awareness of her culture’s changing lifestyle due to destruction of the environment. Label by Maeve Marsh