Hope takes root in the art and life of Joe Wood
By Kelly Anne Smith
NORTH BAY— Joe Wood is elated with the positive reaction to her first exhibition, ᑯᐦᐹᑌᔨᑖᑯᓯᐃᐧᐣ | kohpâteyitâkosiwin – the act of being thought of as contemptible. The White Water Gallery was filled wall-to-wall with people at the opening reception June 15. Since the opening, there have been two invitations from other galleries.
Wood has an extraordinary story she re-creates as an installation of thoughtful expose to invoke understanding and hope for transgendered youth.
The co-founders of Art Fix, Serena Kataoka and Amanda Weckworth, worked with the artist. Serena talked of Joe Wood as being their first collaborator.
“We first met almost four years ago. At that time Joe was still in hospital,” recalled Kataoka. “From the very first day we met, she was already talking about wanting to do a full installation in contemporary art spaces. That is unique. A lot of artists start with bread and butter work. She has always dreamed big… Last year we were on a road trip to Beausoleil First Nation. They were hosting their first ever pow-wow for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People. When we were on our way there, Joe was talking about these documents on the main wall. She had been requisitioning documents from child welfare and mental health institutions to piece together her story from an institutional perspective… Those are files most people would keep private. Joe wanted to share those reflections on those experiences, primarily as an educational tool so people could come to understand what it is to be treated as a file – as a problem to be solved rather than to be heard as a person with nuanced experiences.”
Kataoka continued.
“One of the themes that kept coming out in the conversation and on the wall itself is – she has always been quite clear actually about who she is and what her priorities and values are. She is primarily a two-spirit person. Some of the language in the documents is about gender dysphoria, lacking culture and community and yet she was consistently saying, ‘I’m a Two-Spirit person. I’m a Transwoman’,” explained Kataoka. “It’s been an honour to work with her because she is at a point in her life right now that she gets to live that. She’s independent and able to respond actively to these documents and work with mentors on elements of the installation where she had the vision but needed some technical skills.”
Kataoka points to the AV installation.
“Here you hear Joe’s voice. Two kinds of phrases came up for her regularly. Those that she faced and her responses to that. Being labelled in various ways; describing negative experiences, for example such as ‘He ruined that for us.’ And then her own ways of surviving which was her tapping into her own truths, and trying to find ways to trust in her own knowledge and experience,” she noted. “Joe is one of the most sensitive and thoughtful people that I have ever met. Through all these difficulties, when we were talking when the installation was taking form, she said, ‘I don’t want people to be harmed by this. I want to make sure there is a space in the installation where people can take a minute’.”
Wood explained she was moved a lot to different foster homes.
“I always found a tree. I loved climbing trees which is why this sculpture is in the form of tree tops.”
Wood also designed the audio with a parametric speaker so that if people are having a hard time, they can take a moment and listen to the birds.
Kataoka explained that Joe was in the child welfare system with many negative experiences including sexual abuse by a foster parent when she was very young.
“She was constantly being assessed by social workers trying to figure out a place for her so-called behaviour problems in the classroom,” explained Kataoka. “This particular assessment was because for years she wanted to transition and was very concerned about hitting puberty. They felt that because she was so young, she was not deemed a candidate. Terms they used included ‘mentally unstable’.”
Kataoka says in labeling her, they ruled her unable to make her own decisions.
“This raises questions around who has the right to transition. Fifteen years later, it is still the same experience for her. She felt that way when she was five. They are talking about the perception of her body, about sexuality, and about her mental health.”
The exhibition’s title, ᑯᐦᐹᑌᔨᑖᑯᓯᐃᐧᐣ | kohpâteyitâkosiwin, is in Cree. When translated, it means the act of being thought of as contemptible.
“It comes from focusing on her responses to being judged negatively,” described Kataoka. “All the while she was noticing that and responding to it.”
A member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, Wood identifies as Cree and Scottish. She is originally from South Indian Lake, Manitoba.
Wood shares the genesis of her moving exhibit.
“Serena and I started by talking about it first. She was asking questions about my thoughts on the type of installations I wanted. Then I brought up my CAS records and that I wanted to use them for an installation to show people a better understanding of a transgendered youth with an Indigenous perspective on things.”
Wood wants people to take away hope from her exhibition.
“Some kind of hope— that you can go through a lot and still come out healthy and strong and powerful,” she noted. “When I got these records, I was really surprised with a lot of the things they said about me but they wouldn’t say it to my face. So, I had to find out this way. I’m still finding out as I go along. There are more records I still have to pull up. That takes a while to get.”
The safe place at the centre of the installation is a whimsical tree top. Wood explains the healing zone, complete with happy bird song heard only by those “up” in the tree.
“When I was growing up, one of the foster homes that I was staying at, there was a tree that I liked to climb. I wanted to portray that in the show that is kinda hard, then there is a soft and it’s playful.”
Native Women in the Arts Chair, Aylan Couchie of Nipissing First Nation, had a hand in guiding Joe Wood with the calming tree top. Couchie describes the exhibition as absolutely vulnerable and beautiful.
Couchie explained that while the base was made offsite with some guidance, the remainder of the sculpture was built onsite by Wood at the gallery over the course of nearly seven days using a technique taught in art and design fundamentals.
“It’s a nice sculpture technique that’s very inexpensive. The materials are easy to acquire. I was hoping to give Joe a sculpture technique that she could take into other mediums or other exhibitions and make smaller versions of this.”
Moving to the audiovisual feature, there is a looped projection of circular patterns intertwining. Wood says visitors should acquire a feeling, like a memory. AV specialist and Indigenous Curatorial Intern at the White Water Gallery, Mitchell Ellam, mentored Wood. The audio recording for Joe’s story was about seven hours long. Wood praised Ellam’s influence in making it poetic.
Kataoka explains the bars making up the circles are audio levels of Joe’s voice on three different planes. The key points of Wood’s story were extracted, categorized, and prioritized. As I put on headphones, she says, “You are hearing what you are seeing.” After listening to a sample of the dreamlike track, Kataoka points to two tape recorders with microphones set up to capture messages or reflections left by visitors after their aural experience.
Looking around at Joe Wood’s exhibit, it includes a wall full of black redacted lines on government documents, red-penned with Wood’s rebuttals; a thoughtful offering of digital interaction to accompany her shared story; and a reproduced idyllic safe retreat for visitors to take a minute to breathe.
Wood wants people to have a better understanding of today’s transgendered youth.
“I was part of the early 90s and late 90s to the 2000s. It’s like the whole system changes for everybody that goes through the system. Whatever I went through will hopefully help another person out,” shared Wood. “In my case, CAS didn’t pay close enough attention to my needs. There were certain trials and tribulations. I went along with it, like with certain help, but it was only limited. The way that I grew up in the child welfare system, it was very difficult for me to just be who I am… There needs to be more wisdom and communication in how they raise the children in care. They need to understand about being transgendered and the knowledge that comes with it.”
Wood’s art installation will be showcased at the White Water Gallery until July 20 or on tour.