Artist Kelly Greene offers a lesson about the Haudenosaunee in the latest exhibit at Glenhyrst Art Gallery.
In My Dreams transforms a conventional 20th century classroom in Canada into one that conveys basic principles and teaching of the people of Six Nations.
Greene’s interactive installation allows viewers to sit in wooden desks and practice writing lessons from the blackboard or elsewhere in “class,” including teachings offered by Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons and Sidney Hill, traditional leader of the Haudenosaunee.
They explain basic Six Nations’ beliefs in the short film, We Are the Haudenosaunee, which is positioned on the teacher’s desk. Other significant items included are the Iroquois Confederacy flag, an alternative world globe, and examples of Mohawk pottery and musical instruments.
The painting of the bee and coneflower is included in this dream learning environment to acknowledge its importance, one that has been on the earth for more than 100 million years. Greene dreams of a future in which bees, which are vanishing due to human activity, will continue to exist and thrive.
Consequently, Greene flips the prevailing iconography of the classroom – where once hung images of kings, prime ministers, flags and maps of the empire – with one that is entirely Six Nations centric.
The classroom of Greene’s dreams is positioned as a site of “empathy, understanding and exchange.”
Elsewhere in the exhibit, she offers historical context to her installation that includes a hand-painted portrait of John A. Macdonald and a land acknowledgments polling station. The result is an eclectic dreamscape of what Greene has come to learn about her people and herself.
Of Mohawk-Oneida-Sicilian ancestry, Greene is a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, and a descendant of the Turtle Clan. Her work includes painting, sculpture, installation and photography.
Greene has lived in London, Ontario since 1989 where she obtained a fine arts degree from the University of Western Ontario. She began her visual art studies at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where she moved with her family when she was a child.
Greene has exhibited in Canada and the United States for more than 30 years in solo and group exhibits, primarily at the Woodland Cultural Center in Brantford. Her work is in numerous public and private collections.
Greene’s art focuses primarily on environmental and political topics, as well as revealing stereotypes that are still prevalent toward Indigenous cultures, using ironic humor when possible.
The exhibit will be on display at Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant, 20 Ava Rd., until Sept. 25. Admission is free.