Tanya Lukin Linklater

“The sky held me”
Book Launch and artist talk

Saturday October 15th, 2022
Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Ave, Toronto, ON M5G 2H5

3:00pm -4:00pm

In the context of a commission for The Toronto Biennial of Art 2022, Lukin Linklater generated projects in relation to water, weather and embodiment. The artist wrote a series of open yet concise scores to prompt performances for camera with four dancers. Shot over late summer, fall and early winter in Toronto and Montréal neighborhoods, near rivers, lakes, land formations, under the sky and amidst weather, ‘Sensation is a circuit of experience, a circuit of the felt traveling in and adjacent to the body’ premiered in 2022.

For the Ontario Culture Days Festival, the written scores will be shared as a print publication and online through the Ontario Culture Days website. An audio performance by Cedar Aisipi, Omaskeko Cree youth, prompts listeners. The scores may be experienced as gentle instructions returned to daily, or intermittently, in a practice of listening, breath, sensation and embodiment.

During the Festival, Lukin Linklater will undertake a performative lecture at the Textile Museum of Canada to coincide with the release of the publication. She will perform writings centred on embodiment and weather while screening ‘Sensation is a circuit of experience, a circuit of the felt traveling in and adjacent to the body’, 2022.

Artist Biography:

Tanya Lukin Linklater’s performances, works for camera, installations, and writings centre Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences, (home)lands, and structures of sustenance. Her performances in relation to objects in exhibition, scores, and ancestral belongings generate what she has come to call felt structures. Her work has been shown at the Aichi Triennial, Toronto Biennial of Art, New Museum Triennial, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Art Gallery of Ontario, and elsewhere. Her Alutiiq/Sugpiaq homelands are in the Kodiak archipelago of southwestern Alaska. She lives and works in Nbisiing Anishnabek territory.

Partner Biographies:

The Toronto Biennial of Art is Canada’s leading visual arts event focused exclusively on contemporary art from around the world. For 10 weeks every two years, local, national, and international Biennial artists transform Toronto and its partner regions with free exhibitions, performances, and learning opportunities. Grounded in diverse local contexts, the Biennial’s city-wide programming aims to inspire individuals, engage communities, and contribute to global conversations.

The Textile Museum of Canada aims to inspire understanding of the human experience through textiles. We are the only museum in Canada delivering programs and exhibitions dedicated solely to textile arts. The Museum ignites creativity, inspires wonder, and sparks conversation through the stories held within our global collection of textiles, and active engagement with contemporary art practices.

Artistic programs are made possible thanks to support from Canadian Heritage, the Province of Ontario, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Toronto Arts Council.