Previously Viewed

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This spring, the Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to present Previously Viewed, a series of artist-curated film screenings. Inviting artists from CAG’s recent and upcoming programming to present films that have been formative to their thinking and practice in some way, each screening is a one-night-only event centered on a single feature-length work.

Faye HeavyShield has selected Of Mice and Men (1939).

Everything and nothing specific about (the memory of) seeing this film as a child, though thinking of it here, I would call it an experience of birth and after-birth.

My early childhood was spent in relative isolation. On a cattle ranch at the north end of the reserve that my father managed for the Blood Band. Horses, cows, chickens, and dogs, and television was new. Dada hunted deer and each one was a feast. Calves and foals were born and there was blood each time.

Of Mice and Men tells of loyalty, heroes, land, love, brutality, hopes, and dreams.

These I recognized — even before knowing of this writer John Steinbeck and before watching this movie — as all things present in Sommitsikanaki’s/gramma Kate’s voice relating the adventures of Kutoyis, Napi and our world of living with rocks and animals with whom we shared our language. So there is that power of a good story animated through another medium: film. It would happen that this shift in lens, perspective (reality, even) would evolve and serve me well. I don’t know if it was over time or something innate, but I am thankful to be both participant and observer. That liminality of neither here nor there, but here And there. The time at St. Mary’s Residential School necessitated a place of retreat, when I couldn’t be with family. Books and pictures did that. In particular, I am reminded of my first time reading. That first time, when marks became meaning. And those first words I deciphered on my own were “the dark pony.” I consider it more than a thread through this life as not that long ago, my son and I took a 14-hour drive, there and back, during which we listened to Blood Meridian.

-Faye HeavyShield

Run time: 107 minutes.

RSVP

Registration for this event is encouraged; tickets are free. Secure your seat here.

Rush tickets will also be made available the day of the event, starting at 6:45pm.

Accessibility

This event will be held in CAG’s B.C. Binning Gallery, which is wheelchair accessible. Additional accessibility information can be found here. This film will be presented with closed captioning.

Biography

Faye HeavyShield is a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy from the Kainai (Blood) Nation in the foothills of Southern Alberta. She is a fluent speaker of the Blackfoot language and studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. HeavyShield has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, including Nations in Urban Landscapes, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; rock paper river, Gallery Connexion, Fredericton; Into the Garden of Angels, The Power Plant, Toronto; and blood, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge. Her work is held in collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg; the Heard Museum, Phoenix; the Glenbow Museum, Calgary; and the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina. She is the recipient of an Eiteljorg Native American Contemporary Art Fellowship, and received both the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 2021.