Explore Built on Genocide
Welcome to the Built on Genocide Tour. Click through the images below to learn more about each painting by Jay Soule | CHIPPEWAR and to hear an audio description diving deeper into the themes of each artwork.
Artist statement from Jay Soule | CHIPPEWAR
“As a multidisciplinary artist from Chippewa of the Thames First Nation, I’ve always worked to expose the truth about Canada’s genocide against Indigenous peoples. In my work, I explore Canada’s ongoing problematic relationship with Indigenous people, and the misrepresentation of indigeneity in media, films, television in pop culture.
Built on Genocide is an expansion of all of my work to date. It reveals the truth of settler colonialism, systemic racism and the ongoing reality of being Indigenous in the illegal apartheid state of so called Canada.
Past and Present European settlers and the Canadian government have completely destroyed these formerly unblemished lands with constant and continued injustices towards Indigenous peoples. I’ve always felt the need to expose and bring ongoing issues into the public eye through my artistic practice.”
Listen to Jay Soule | CHIPPEWAR’s artist statement below.
Listen to an audio description of the installation below.
For our Blind and Low Vision audience, audio describer JJ Hunt, has recorded image descriptions and artist didactics for each artwork. Click on the images below to learn more.
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Built on Genocide is a large-scale installation by multidisciplinary artist Jay Soule | CHIPPEWAR, reflecting the events and policies throughout Canada’s history that have deliberately undermined and destroyed Indigenous livelihoods.
The work is influenced by the mass genocide of the buffalo as a result of the colonial railway expansion. The buffalo decimation is an underacknowledged but foundational aspect of “Canadian” history, with consequences that persist today.
Built on Genocide addresses the direct correlation between the genocide of the buffalo and the genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
