Skawennati shakes up Montreal building

The grand facade of the Conseil des arts de Montreal (CAM) building on Sherbrooke Street has been adorned with colour this week, as part of a new art piece by Kahnawake’s own Skawennati.

The historic stone columns have been wrapped in yellow, purple, and orange patterns, an ode to the Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash.

The wrapped pillars officially mark the CAM’s 70th anniversary, but Skawennati’s installation goes beyond the physical realm. Passersby are also invited to scan the QR code affixed to the side of the building and see another element of the piece come to life: three personified renderings of the Three Sisters, who will be overlaid on the building via a user’s phone camera.

“I wanted the piece to have two aspects, I wanted something very physical, tangible, and visible, and then something that was cyber,” said Skawennati.

The piece builds upon Skawennati’s recent works incorporating augmented reality (AR), including her work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where she took part in a guerilla art exhibit called ENCODED.

That exhibit featured Skawennati’s piece They Said Get Ready, which also featured personified versions of the Three Sisters as superheroes in her video-game style. Similarly, users could point their cameras towards the entrance of the met, and the three avatars sprung to life, looming over the building.

This work, titled Promise officially debuted this week, and Skawennati said it was special to see her art come to life at an in-person launch on Wednesday.

“It was wonderful to see people really responding to the columns being wrapped, they find it beautiful and vibrant and I was really happy about that,” she said. “People seem curious, even when we were testing it people were taking pictures on the street and asking us what it was all about, it was very fun.”

Part of the piece also includes an original song that mixes Kanien’kéha, French, and English, with vocal recordings by Skanaie:’a Deer, Kanikatsistha Hill, and Ieronhienhawi McComber. The song will play as guests scan the building with their phones, complimenting the Three Sisters artwork that springs up across the building’s facade.

“Seeing the animation complete and seeing how it’s moving with the music, it’s so amazing,” Skawennati said.

The installation presented new challenges for Skawennati.

“The biggest challenge was working on a heritage building, because everything that we proposed had to be tested,” Skawennati said.

The wraps needed to be carefully considered to ensure that the adhesive didn’t harm the stone, and Skawennati and her team had to do practice runs, discovering that any dampness would alter the piece. The group had to keep their fingers crossed for a dry day, which, luckily, they managed to find in time for installation.

“It was stressful, but we must rise to that challenge, because some artist has got to do it,” Skawennati said.

Promise will be available to view until September of this year at the CAM’s Gaston-Miron Building, just across from La Fontaine Park.

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