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Shoot the Breeze
Artist Audio Guide with Marcy Friesen
Welcome to the audio guide for Marcy Friesen’s exhibition, Shoot the Breeze. Throughout the gallery, you’ll find QR codes that link to Marcy speaking about her artwork, inspirations, and stories behind the pieces. Listen below or scan the codes as you explore the exhibition.
Smoked Fish & Beaded Cigarettes
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Hello it’s Marcy Friesen at Bead Artist Thoughts Marcy Friesen. Welcome to Shoot the Breeze. I am going to talk about the Walleye photographs with the beaded patches on them. These images are all taken up at one of my very favourite fishing holes; up at the Thunder Rapids dam. It’s about 30 minutes away from where I live. So these fish are Walleye and they are all smoking. The cigarettes that are in their mouths are all the same smoke, the same fish, I just changed up the beadwork on them. The cigarette itself is very special to me because that is one of the last smokes that had belonged to my dad and we spent his last summer fishing a lot so what stemmed from us sitting on the bank of the Saskatchewan River pickerel rigging, snacking, visiting and he was smoking I asked if i could borrow a smoke from him and ended up putting it in the fish’s mouth. And here we have smoked fish. It was something that was very special to me, and as it has turned out since his passing it became very therapeutic for me to use his cigarettes and use cigarettes in a lot of different ways and you'll see that throughout the show. Then I began beading cigarettes which you will now see the fully beaded smokes here and there throughout the exhibitions. And I continue to have the same type of themes with the smoking fish and I love to make whatever I can make, smoke a cigarette. It’s been very healing to me, very therapeutic and I just love fish, love fishing, I love fish stories and it’s so fun and also everyone has a smoking story so share your stories, take the time to sit and “shoot the breeze”.
Drink it, Smoke it, Do it
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Hi it’s Marcy again; @ Bead Artist Thoughts Marcy Friesen. Follow me on Instagram. Anyhow… you are looking at a gorgeous beaded Bepsi can and pack of Player. So, the Bebsi is called “Drink It” because I want you to drink it. And the Player is called “Smoke It” because I want you to smoke it! Drink it, smoke it, do it, whatever. I have been contemplating life lately and my main thoughts have been focused on what I have done with my life, what I haven’t done with my life. Times when I’ve been too scared to do certain things. I’m at the age now where I am just like… let’s just do it! Let’s not worry if you’re good enough or if other people think you’re good enough. I just want you to recognize the worth that you have and I want you to do it, whatever it may be. So these two pieces, I like to have fun with some hidden imagery, so I’ve got some, if you look closely you just see some different images in the beadwork. So yeah, drink it, smoke it, do it, have fun, you get one life so make the most of it!
Fighting the Institution
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This work started a few years ago and these are my latest five pieces and what I originally wanted to do was talk about the imbalance of the worth of people’s lives that is defined by the colour of your skin. So I started looking at different things around me in the world and wondering how can I indigenize some of the things I see in everyday life? So I thought of the 5 dollar bill, which is special in this work for a few reasons. So indigenize, I Googled the word indigenize and it’s the process by which indigenous ways of knowing, being and relating are incorporated into different educational, organizational, cultural, and social structures of the institution. So that gets me thinking about the institution… and this work is called “Fighting the Institution”. That stemmed from me doing some research and it just really seemed to fit. I got thinking about well, the institution like who makes these rules? What exactly is this institution? Do I need to accept these rules? Do I even need to know the rules, do we even need to know the rules, like honestly… and do I need to acknowledge the rules? And I think it, for me, this work is just very… it was very thought provoking for me because it got me thinking about so many other different things in my life and I am very much a rule follower… or I was. I was more so of a rule follower and for whatever reasons I am not so much anymore. I like not knowing the rules and I like pushing the rules and I think we all need to do that, especially in this day and age. We really need to stop and think about who makes these rules anyway, and why are they made for everybody. Anyways those were my thoughts when making this specific work.
Cigarette as Lifelines
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I used to be a smoker. I started smoking my Dad’s cigarette butts probably when I was 14 years old. I would dig them out of the ash tray and yeah lit them up and get a couple puffs out of them. It’s so gross when I think about it now but yeah that’s where I got my start in smoking. I quit smoking probably about 28 years ago when I was pregnant with my first son. These cigarettes that I’ve been beading, I’ve really been contemplating life lately and looking at a cigarette as a life line and the different lengths of a cigarette as you smoke it. It gets shorter and shorter and shorter. So I think about and I thought about sometimes when I wanted to take a real long hard drag off of a smoke when times were hard. Sometimes you go through some hard things in life and you just want to get through it fast and so just like puffing and puffing and puffing just to get through it faster. And other times in my life I just want to hold that smoke gently in my hands, watch it and watch the smoke gently rise up into the air. And life has kind of just been like that for me, sometimes I just want to get through it quickly and times I just want to sit back, relax and enjoy, just enjoy whatever it was I was going through at different times. So these works are really special to me for that reason and just looking at the cigarette as my life line.
Beyond the Moccasin
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Okay, so, oh my gosh! There was a time in my life and honestly not that long ago where I was really feeling… how was I feeling… I was feeling like as an indigenous woman there were certain expectations that were put on me. One of those expectations that I felt was something that was expected of me was as an artist, as a maker because I have my Trapline Creations business, where I make full fur cats and mitts and moccasins and stuff. And everybody wanted moccasins, like everybody! And I got so tired of making moccasins, I’m like I am never making moccasins again! Like never. And that’s all anyone seemed to want; moccasins. So I’m like I am NOT a moccasin maker, this was my thoughts, I am not a moccasin maker. I am more than that, I am not a moccasin maker. I am going to not make moccasins anymore for anybody because I felt like I was a stereotype, I was being stereotyped, like “Oh she’s an indigenous woman, she’s got a business, Trapline Creations”, when yes I did, I do and so I quit making moccasins for a couple years. And I had to work this out in my head, like work out these thoughts going through my head and talk to friends. Then one of my friends, she was like, well you do have a business, Trapline Creations, and I don't think that people really think that that is all you–do type of thing. And so I started looking at it from a different point of view, like as from someone who doesn’t look like me, and who is not a maker of moccasins or fur items. I think I just had to gain some more confidence in myself and realize that people don't ask me for specific things just because of the way I look. No, they’re asking for things because you actually have a business, people know I’ve made moccasins. So I had to do some healing within myself and within my thoughts on different stories of racism from my past. I seem to do a lot of work on that and I’m wanting to switch to more celebratory stories and stories of strength. So I now embrace the moccasin. I like to make singular moccasins, that’s a whole other story, why I do singular pieces but I hope you love, LOVE this piece. It’s a piece that I feel such strength coming from it and love and fun! It was so fun to make all these different fish – I love fishing, I love smoking, I am not a smoker, honestly. I love the water, I have always felt drawn towards the water. I just really hope that you enjoy this piece.
We would like to thank RBC for generously supporting this exhibition.