Meryl McMaster. As Strong as the Wind

The exhibition brings together a number of photographic series in which, through self-portraiture and the exploration of natural sites, Meryl McMaster revisits her family ties (her nēhiyaw and Dutch/British ancestors) and looks into the history inscribed in the landscape.

Travelling through her nation’s ancestral sites and her everyday environments, Meryl McMaster delves into a history inscribed in the landscape. In a series of photographic self-portraits made in different places in North America, she explores her kinship ties with her ancestors – Plains Cree/Métis on her father’s side, British and Dutch on her mother’s side. She tries, as she wanders, to hear the memories of ancient sites. As she visits these places with stories from the deep past, a feeling of connection emerges.

Sometimes, she travels to unknown lands or places that have forgotten about the past. Her thoughts then turn to the great migrations that her ancestors undertook, by land and water, to trace her history.

In her works, her imagination knows no bounds: glacial erratics become ancient guardians of the natural world; birds, companions cradled in her arms and guiding her toward the answers she seeks in the sky; insects, witnesses to the power of the living world and the importance of maintaining ecological equilibrium.

The memory that Meryl McMaster carries on her back intermingles generations and lineages, geologic eras and ancestral lands. She materializes in a series of images taken outdoors, where the beauty of the landscape and the memory of an often-heartrending colonial history stand side by side. As Strong as the Wind presents the work of an artist who faces the flow of time and reconnects with those who preceded her.