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Soloman Chiniquay

Soloman Chiniquay is an Indigenous documentary photographer and filmmaker from the Stoney Nakoda and Pomo tribes living between xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səl̓ilwətaɁɬ territory and his homelands of Treaty 7 territory. His lens-based work witnesses expressions of Indigeneity, creating imagery that attempts to candidly explore the land and the people, the ways people use and connect to the land, and the artifacts they leave on it. Chiniquay was a 2021 Wedge Artist in Residence, exhibitions include Queen’s University Racism is Garbage and New Growth 221A.

Exhibitions

  • Ake Huchimagachach Ena (I’ll see you again mother) Ake Huchimagachach Ade (I’ll see you again father)

    SOLOMAN CHINIQUAY, JAZ WHITFORD
    April 27–July 1, 2023

    In Stoney there is no word for goodbye, only “Ake Huchimagachach,” which means “I’ll see you again in this life or the next.” A gesture toward boundless preservation, Soloman Chiniquay and jaz whitford create cultural memoirs, snapshots enlivening the cataclysms of colonial condition with colorful markings that re-root Indigenous accounts of place and land. The exhibition presents 22 digital images with pictorial superimposed acrylic, oil, and ink, repositioning common conceptions of land as sedated, static or commodity to something alive, vocal, and autonomous. The dynamic range of point-and-shoot images make visible quiet observations; implicating all of us in considerations of nature’s perfect undoing, framing sites of familiarity, intimacy, grief, longing, and possibility. A mirror to dispossession, Ake Huchimagachach Ena (I’ll see you again mother) Ake Huchimagachach Ade (I’ll see you again father) posits Indigenous life, labor, and connection as vital to the embodiment of sovereignty and the self-determination of land. Central to the series is a method of exchange. Their approach fuses photography, painting, and conceptualism that culminates in an offering – placing the value of art in the act of collaboratively envisioning practices of stewardship and care.

Talks & Events