Hope and Healing installation has temporary home at Fort Whoop-Up

By Lethbridge Herald on July 6, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Metis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers sets up an art installation that is part of her nationwide project Hope and Healing Canada Monday at Fort Whoop Up.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman  – Lethbridge Herald  – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

A new temporary art installation that is part of an ongoing nationwide project will be calling Fort Whoop Up home for the next few months. 

Metis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers is bringing her artwork to Lethbridge through her Hope and Healing Canada project, which consists of site-specific art installations across Canada. 

“The focus is to use art as a way to incite conversations about decriminalization of public spaces, what does decolonization mean, and how can we work towards that goal overtime so this is something that’s really important to us,” said Tyler Stewart, curator for the Galt Museum and Archives. 

He said this art installation is part of something they are working on with their interpreters at Fort Whoop Up to think about the site not only from a settler’s perspective but from from many different perspectives including indigenous perspectives. To look at it through different lenses. 

The art installation consists of circles connected by lines made with red yarn that are placed on the main entrance walls along with webs taking over the doors. It is definitely the first thing people will see when they arrive to Fort Whoop Up. 

Chambers said she used red as it was the right colour to carry the message – it is visible, it gets people’s attention and it is impactful. 

Chambers explained the circles represent the different lenses people can look at the fort through to incite conversations. 

“I wanted to be able to look at this site through another lens instead of a colonial lens,” said Chambers. 

She further explained that the lines connecting the circles represent the connections we make with people around us. 

“It’s about connection. We have a circle that is family and then out from that it spreads to acquaintances or friends of the family, or those aunts and uncles that we have that aren’t really aunts and uncles but are part of our family anyways, then it spreads out to single lines that are the strangers on the street that we’ve never met before but are still part of our community,” said Chambers. 

She also explained that the webs on the doors represent the intricacies of colonialism. 

“I wanted something that had a webbing and such, because the web of the colonialism surrounding this space, and this space is incredibly complex, so what better way to show that than an actual web as people enter,” said Chambers. 

The art installation in now in place and will remained on display until October and once it is dismantled, the work is returned to the artist and will be reworked and repurposed at another site somewhere else in the country. 

In addition to the artwork, part of Chambers’ project involves gathering stories from each participating venue, which will culminate in a book and travelling exhibition. 

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