SKIN ON SKIN

Skin on Skin is a photographic triptych that was created with the onset of vulnerability. This work manifested while living through and thinking about bodies that experience displacement in the world. For me, this mix of human skin and animal hide provided a way to navigate through my own Metis heritage while simultaneously allowing for other provocations. This shift allowed the dialogue to move from individual to exploring identity in the context of community and thinking about concerns of structural inequality.

Skin is used as a visual metaphor to discuss that we are made up of interdependent elements and layers that are reliant on each other. In Cree culture, this is referred to as ‘Wahkohtowin’ which means "everything is related" and is passed through language, song, prayer, and storytelling.

When reconsidering the relationship between the body and technology and living within a new world, this stilled digital image provides visual imagery that tells one singular intimate story in an effort to create new stories. Stories that may transpire out of the challenges within deprivation of physical connection, lack of touch, and the caress of warmth experienced with skin on skin contact. 

Adrianne Smith

Adrianne Smith is a Metis, visual artist and cultural worker born in Leduc, Alberta currently based in Edmonton, Alberta. She graduated in 2018 as a Fine Art alumni of MacEwan University and was a recipient of the Métis Scholar Award for that year. She is currently in her graduating year in the University of Alberta BFA program. Smith is currently exploring the use of contemporary processes and applying them to traditionally cultivated materials used in indigenous arts, specifically Metis traditions. This area of interest stems from her ancestry and the distinct Metis (people of mixed blood) culture that grew out of Canada’s fur trade. Smith reflects on the feeling of stumbling through displacement experienced from being of both settler and Cree descent and living with the lasting, often dysfunctional impacts created by colonialism. She most recently held a position as Gallery Assistant at the John and Maggie Mitchell Art Gallery provided by the Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP) in 2019.