Duane Linklater: mymothersside

This fall, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive presents the first major survey exhibition of Duane Linklater (b. Omaskêko Cree, b. 1976, Treaty 9 territory), whose work explores the contradictions of contemporary Indigenous life within settler colonial systems of knowledge, representation, and value. Duane Linklater: mymothersside features more than thirty works by the artist, who has become a leading voice in the contemporary art world over the past decade, with important contributions to the 2022 Whitney Biennial and the 2023 Saõ Paulo Biennial. The exhibition surveys the wide scope of Linklater’s interdisciplinary practice, encompassing painting, sculpture, video, performance, and a large-scale intervention into the architecture of the museum.

Based in North Bay, Ontario, Linklater has been celebrated for a practice that interrogates what he calls “the physical and theoretical structures of the museum” in relation to the exclusion of Indigenous cultural production past and present. His work references ancestral traditions—ranging from hunting to fur trading to berry gathering—alongside popular bands and films of his youth, including the English rock band The Cure and the Kiowa guitarist Jesse Ed Davis. This mixing of a wide range of cultural influences suggests an expansive constellation of affinities that defies reductive notions of identity.

Duane Linklater: mymothersside features multiple structures made with tepee poles, highlighting the artist’s interest in deconstructing and reassembling the traditional Cree dwelling. These large-scale architectural installations will be displayed alongside Linklater’s draped and folded tepee-cover paintings, shaped canvases the artist makes using a combination of digital printing and natural dyeing techniques. A centerpiece of BAMPFA’s exhibition will be wintercount_215_kisepîsim, mistranslate_wolftreeriver_ ininîmowinîhk (2022), a multi-part installation featuring abstract canvases, each measuring over 18 feet, hung in the round and made using natural dyes including cochineal, orange pekoe tea, charcoal, sumac, and blueberry extract. This monumental work will be on view for the first time since its debut at the 2022 Whitney Biennial.

Film and video have long been important aspects of Linklater’s practice, and his survey at BAMPFA will also include multiple examples of these works—including several digital transfers of 16mm and Super 8mm short films. Modest Livelihood (2012), Linklater’s collaboration with Brian Jungen, follows the artists on a hunting trip in Dane-zaa Territory in Northern British Columbia. While hunting is deeply embedded in both artists’ ancestral traditions, the film’s title references the Canadian Supreme Court’s controversial 1999 ruling that First Nations can hunt and fish on their own territory provided that such activity not exceed what might be considered a “moderate livelihood.” In conjunction with BAMPFA’s exhibition, Linklater and his son Tobias Linklater, who together perform as eagles with eyes closed, will score the silent, 50-minute film for the first time in a live musical performance on Wednesday, February 21.

To celebrate the opening on Saturday, October 7—and in observance of Indigenous People’s Day the following Monday—BAMPFA will host a Community Day with free gallery admission from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The exhibition will be accompanied by a rich series of performances and public programs during its run, as follows: 

Ewako ôma askiy. This then is the earth.
November 1, 3–7pm; November 2, 3–7pm; November 3, 2–5pm; November 4, 2–5pm
Led by artist/choreographer Tanya Lukin Linklater, and in collaboration with dance artists Ivanie Aubin-Malo and Ceinwen Gobert, this series of open rehearsals respond to the cyclical, seasonal, affective, and formal qualities of selected works in Duane Linklater: mymothersside. Visitors are invited to view the in situ, unfolding processes of embodiment, gesture, and sensation over multiple sessions. This event is presented by the UC Berkeley Arts Research Center in collaboration with BAMPFA.

Roundtable on Indigenous Knowledge
January 27, 2024, 3pm
A roundtable conversation focusing on Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing that inform Linklater’s multifaceted practice. The discussion explores topics such as language revitalization, basket weaving, and food sovereignty. Featured speakers are Beth Piatote (Nez Perce), UC Berkeley Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature; Carolyn Smith (Karuk), UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Anthropology; and noted food writer and author Sara Calvosa Olson (Karuk). 

Reclamation Poetry Gathering
February 16, 2024, 11:30am and 2pm
A trans-Indigenous conversation—with juxtapositions that decenter European thought and begin to translate an ocean-to-desert-to-river-to-forest poetic imaginary—featuring nineteen poetry fellows as part of UC Berkeley’s 2023 Poetry & the Senses program. This event is presented by the UC Berkeley Arts Research Center in collaboration with BAMPFA.

11:30am: Al-An deSouza, Ayling Z Dominguez, Amanda Galvan Huynh, Sarah Hennessey, Cristina Mendez, Angel Sobotta, Aimee Suzara, Tierra Sydnor, Kellen Trenal, Angel Sobotta, and Sa Whitley

2pm: Cody Achin, Julian Ankney, Carol Ann Carl, Phillip Cash Cash, Ines Hernandez-Avila, Fede Kong-Gonzalez, Marisa Lin, No'u Revilla, and Taté Walker

Natalie Diaz, Craig Santos Perez, and Beth Piatote Reading
February 17, 2024, 1:30pm
Writers who draw upon Indigenous languages and aesthetics—Natalie Diaz (Mojave), Craig Santos Perez (Chamoru), and Beth Piatote (Nez Perce)—gather to read from their work. This event is presented by the UC Berkeley Arts Research Center in collaboration with BAMPFA.

Musical Performance by eagles with eyes closed
February 21, 2024, 7:30pm
eagles with eyes closed is a musical project consisting of Duane Linklater and Tobias Linklater, exploring the generative experience of watching films together as intergenerational collaborators, father and son, and two Indigenous artists. With various instrumentations, processes, and improvisations, their performance accompanies a screening of the silent film Modest Livelihood (2012) by Duane Linklater and Brian Jungen. 

For event details, please visit bampfa.org/linklater

Duane Linklater: mymothersside was originally presented at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, and was curated by Amanda Donnan, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions, Frye Art Museum. BAMPFA’s exhibition is organized by Victoria Sung, Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator, with Claire Frost, Curatorial Associate.