Announcement of 2015 Makers Muse Recipients
Faig Ahmed âą Franklin LĂłpez
Kent Monkman âą Julio Salgado
Meriem Bennani âą Taslim van Hattum
Voice Monet âą Winona LaDuke
Spanning geographically from Baku, Azerbaijan to White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota the work of this yearâs Makers Muse awardees is captivating, thought-provoking, and pushes the arts well beyond expected boundaries.
Using mediums as broad as sculpture, video, the written word, hand-crafted jewelry, illustration, painting, sound, comedy and fashion–this yearâs artists are melting the molds of their genres to create fresh perspectives on some of the most complex issues of our time. Some are tackling issues as dense as renewable energy, gender and colonization, and the perceptions of Muslim womanhood. While others are using their own unique lens to assemble traditional mediums anew. They are snarky, serious, inquiring, and, above all else, they are wildly talented individuals who we are thrilled to introduce you to.
At this pivotal moment in Kindleâs story we feel especially honored and wonderfully inspired by our 2015 Makers Muse recipients.
Photo by Dawn Paley
His glamorous diva alter-ego Miss Chief appears in much of his work as an agent provocateur, trickster, and supernatural being, who reverses the colonial gaze, upending received notions of history and indigenous people. With Miss Chief at centre stage, Monkman has created memorable site specific performances at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, The Royal Ontario Museum, The Smithsonianâs National Museum of the American Indian, Compton Verney, and most recently at the Denver Art Museum. His award-winning short film and video works have been screened at various national and international festivals, including the 2007 and 2008 Berlinale, and the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.
Monkman has been awarded the Egale Leadership Award, the Indspire Award and the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award. His work has been exhibited internationally and is widely represented in the collections of major Museums in Canada and the USA. He is represented by Pierre-Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain in Montreal and Toronto, Sargentâs Daughters in New York and Trepanier Baer in Calgary.
(Image below: DanaĂ« Receiving the Golden Rain, 2015, 60â x 49â, Acrylic on Canvas)
Meriem is currently working on videos and photographs documenting the life of Fardaous Funjab, the avant-garde Moroccan Hijab designer. The project explores the encounter of fashion and religion with a focus on the aesthetics of sexuality/sexiness in a contemporary Muslim context. Bennani is interested in dissolving tropes and questioning systems of representation through a strategy of magical realism and humor as an unreliable pacifier.
Taslim is also committed to her career as a social worker and public heath professional in New Orleans, Louisiana. She currently serves as the Director of the Maternal and Child Health Portfolio at the Louisiana Public Health Institute. In her spare time beyond art and public health she devises elaborate, unfulfilled plans to kill the possum family living in her studio roof.
Her most recent project is 100 Muslim Women.
Ms LaDuke is an expert witness in carbon, economic and environmental discussions with reference to energy policy and has testified at the United Nations, the US Congress and numerous state and federal hearings on these issues.
As an expert witness in the proposed Enbridge Sandpiper pipeline, she submits this testimony demonstrating there is no âneedâ for this pipeline and the paucity of economic and environmental foresight for such a proposal.