Amy Malbeuf is an interdisciplinary artist from Rich Lake, Alberta. With a background in contemporary performance as well as in traditional Aboriginal arts, her work explores the concept of translation from the physical to the immaterial, as an abstract and dynamic exercise in portraiture of the multifarious Indigenous people across Canada.
Malbeuf’s new large-scale installation is titled kayâs-ago, referring to the slang term for “a long time ago” in Cree/ Michif languages. The series is comprised of caribou hair sculpted text elements on illuminated panels. The textual elements represent a diversity of phrases in English, Cree and Michif.
Malbeuf describes the laboriously handcrafted fragments as “powerful, humorous, sad, banal, profane and inspirational”: a contemporary and abstract portrait reflecting the broad range of voices and perspectives of Indigenous people.