New Georgian College art exhibition examines Indigenous, colonial histories

Sept. 13, 2024

A new art exhibition at Georgian College’s Campus Gallery examines the intersection of colonial and First Nations histories of place, cultures and Indigenous erasure.

Aylan Couchie, a Nishnaabekwe interdisciplinary artist, curator and writer from Nipissing First Nation near North Bay, will showcase some of the art she created while she was a student at Georgian, alongside new pieces and a series of woodworking created by her late grandfather, Thomas Couchie-ban.

The exhibition, Survival of the Fittest, is meant to provoke meaningful conversations around culture, legacy, and healing. It runs Sept. 19 to Oct. 20.

“The selection of work in this exhibition is diverse, made over six years from 2013 to 2019. It is informed by personal experience and sustained research,” said Amy Switzer, a former Georgian professor who taught Couchie. “Some of this work I had the privilege to see her develop since it was made when she was a student in the sculpture classes I taught at Georgian College. The range of the works illustrates the evolution of her creative process while also offering insights into the methods and themes explored in her more recent work.”

The exhibition is in partnership with Georgian’s Wiidookdaading Indigenous Resource Centre and Museum and Gallery Studies program and the MacLaren Art Centre.

The woodworking in the exhibition includes a series of small canoes Couchie’s grandfather was in the process of creating before his death and pays homage to his creative inventiveness, teachings and inspiration.

Couchie, a Fine Arts alumna, is currently working on a PhD at Queen’s University and researching areas of land, language and Indigenous placemaking through mapping, naming and public art. She has won several awards, such as Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Center, and a Premier’s Award through Ontario Colleges. She is also a committee member of Nipissing First Nation’s Language and Culture Committee, and she is board member and former board chair of Native Women in the Arts.

“I am thrilled to work with Aylan in this exhibit and celebrate her path from Georgian College to her thriving professional artistic career,” said Amy Bagshaw, Director, The Campus Gallery at Georgian.

Exhibition details:

• Runs Sept. 19 to Oct. 20.
• Opening reception: Thursday, Sept. 19, 5 to 7 p.m.
• Campus Gallery hours of operation: Mondays to Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m.

The exhibition is also part of MacLaren Art Centre’s Art Crawl on Thursday, Oct. 10, starting 10 a.m. at Georgian’s Campus Gallery.

The Campus Gallery is located at Georgian’s Barrie Campus, room D140 (D building) in the Helen and Arch Brown Centre for Design and Visual Arts, One Georgian Dr., Barrie, ON.