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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.

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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

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