whitefeatherhunter.ca
*website under construction - best viewed on a desktop browser
ABOUT
Chris Giles photo.
WhiteFeather is a multiple award-winning Canadian artist and scholar working in a research, craft and performance-based transdisciplinary practice. She specializes in biomaterials research, used predominantly to develop new critical discourse.
WhiteFeather has been professionally engaged in a craft-based (bio)art practice for over 18 years, via an ongoing material investigation of the functional, aesthetic and technological potential of bodily materials. Her works coalesce various media approaches, such as textile methods, biology, storytelling (video, audio and text), performance, public intervention, digital + web-based installations and DIY electronics.
WhiteFeather's work has ranged widely, from the utilization of human hair in textile construction, to rogue taxidermy soft sculptures of found flesh and bone, to digital/ pop culture representations of the body absent in the digital world. Recent work, spanning the last six years, is on biomaterials (biotextile) experimentation through the creation of new vital materials via hands-on tissue engineering, and other microbiological processes for textile applications. Hacking the laboratory and negotiating institutional bureaucracy is also part of the materiality of her work.
WhiteFeather is a multiple-award winner and grant recipient, holding an Master of Fine Arts in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University. She is currently a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow, Australian Government International RTP Scholar and UWA Postgraduate Scholar, situated between the School of Human Sciences and School of Design at The University of Western Australia. She has collaborated and worked in numerous international laboratory-based artist research residencies and served for over two years as the Principal Investigator and Technician of the Speculative Life BioLab at the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University. She has lectured, shown and performed work internationally and has been featured in multiple international magazines, journals, art books, blogs, video and television spotlights.
CV en bref *Download the full CV (PDF) with academic awards,
publications, conferences, media profiles, etc. here.
Selected Education
2019- PhD candidate in Biological Art, SymbioticA/ The University of
Western Australia
2016 MFA Fibres and Material Practices, Concordia University, Montreal
2008 Certificate in Adult Education, University of New Brunswick
2006 Bachelor of Applied Arts, University of New Brunswick
2001 Diploma in Fine Craft, New Brunswick College of Craft and Design
Selected Residencies (last 5 years only)
2022 Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle, Cornwall, UK
[Research centre affiliate]**, Université de Montréal, Montreal, CA
2019 Useful Fictions Symposium (Lab 5), École Polytechnique, Paris, FR,
supported by a Graduate Fellowship through UC Davis, US
2015-19 Pelling Lab for Biophysical Manipulation, University of Ottawa, CA
2018 Ars Bioarctica/ Finnish Bioart Society, Kilpisjärvi Biological Research
Station, Faculty of Biosciences at Helsinki University, FI
2018 Saint Mary's University Halifax/ IOTA Institute, hosted by Dr Linda
Campbell, Senior Research Fellow, Environmental Science, CA
2017-18 Sporobole centre en art actuel/ Université de Sherbrooke, QC, CA
with collaborator Dr Denis Groleau, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in
Microorganisms and Industrial Processes
**due to the taboo nature of the body materials I work with and institutionalized misogyny, I am legally prohibited from publicly naming the specific research centre that hosted my residency, or the prestigious collaborators who invited me (2022).
Selected Professional Grants (last 5 years only)
2022 Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create: Research and
Creation Grant
2021 Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Exploration and Research
Grant - Multidisciplinary Arts
2020 Museum of Witchcraft and Magic Travel Bursary
2018 Ammerman Center Independent Scholar Fellowship, Ammerman
Center for Arts and Technology and the Center for the Critical Study of
Race and Ethnicity at Connecticut College, US
Textile Society of America Full Conference Fee Waiver Scholarship
VSC grant and VSC work exchange, Vermont Studio Center, US
2015-18 Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Travel grant, visual arts
(5x recipient)
Selected Exhibitions (last five years only)
2022 Palimpsest (work-in-progress), Museum of Witchcraft and Magic,
Boscastle, UK
Featured Artist: WhiteFeather Hunter, Blue Lotus Foundation Project
Space, London, UK/online
Everything you touch You Change with Renee Carmichael
(screening), Art Resilience Economy Research Network, London,
UK/online
Fine Arts and History of Art Postgraduate Symposium Exhibition,
Cullity Gallery, UWA School of Design, Perth, AU
2021 in Space Grey (by invitation – Anyse Ducharme, curator), Knot Project
Space, Digital Arts Resource Centre, Ottawa, CA/ online
Culture of Contamination (Tarah Rhoda, curator), SciArt Initiative/ New
York Hall of Science, NY, US - cancelled due to COVID-19
Fine Arts and History of Art Postgraduate Symposium Exhibition,
Cullity Gallery, UWA School of Design, Perth, AU
2020 Quand l'art rencontre la science — Les Labos du Renard (by
invitation – screening), Théâtre du Renard/ Maison de la Culture
Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal, CA
2019 AT THE MARGINS—Experimental Engagements in Science, Literature
and the Arts (SLSA) (Jesse Colin Jackson and Antoinette LaFarge,
curators), Viewpoint Gallery, UC Irvine, California, US
Speed of Light/ Useful Fictions (David Familian, curator), Galerie HUS,
Montmarte, Paris, FR
Black Box Pop-Up Cinema, Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle
University in partnership with the Cultural Negotiation of Science at
Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Printemps Numérique X McCord After Hours, McCord Museum,
Montreal, CA
2018 Salivam (solo), Sporobole centre en art actuel, Sherbrooke, CA
This Mess We’re In (Tarsh Bates, curator), Unhallowed Arts Festival,
Old Customs House, Fremantle, AU
Taking Care (Anna Kerekes, curator), Ars Electronica Festival 2018,
POSTCITY, Linz, AT
blóm + blóð screening at The Social Fabric: Deep Local to Pan
Global, The Textile Society of America’s 16th Biennial Symposium,
Vancouver, CA
blóm + blóð screening at ODD Gallery as part of the 19th Dawson
City International Short Film Festival, Dawson City, CA
Prospective Futures: The Aurelia Project, STEMFest 2018 showcase,
Halifax Convention Centre, CA
