Aurora Wolfe

Canada Goose? 

Get off it. This goose was around long before the colonizers came and “discovered” this already occupied land. The ᓂᐢᑲ (niska) are big for Canadians, a real sense of national pride. Canadians are thinking “yup these are our geese, look at all them eh!” But labeling niska as being under ownership or even citizens of what the political boundary lines call Canada is a stretch. Sure they might summer in Canada, who doesn’t like to breed up here in the summertime with all beautiful lakes and mosquitoes? But look at their territorial map. They are all over turtle island and could be just as much American or Mexican as Canadian. Some real motivated niska even fly over the ocean to jolly old England while others just buckle down and huddle up for the winter. I think that would be me, too lazy! 

Aurora told me that ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ (nehiyaw) are kinda like niska. Strong Women! Have you ever gotten too close to a mother with her goslings close by? They will chase you down! Those women are fierce protectors! niska are big on community. They need it! Those epic rows upon rows of flying V’s as they are leaving Canadian frosts. It’s a real community banding together for everyone’s benefit. That lead goose is tough, forging ahead and breaking the wind for its pals. But it’s not always the same goose that is the head honcho: there’s always another goose ready to take up the lead and do their part. nehiyaw aren’t really defined by a national political boundary either, they had massive territories and migrated with the seasons and the availability of food as well. Like niska, nehiyaw can be quiet; but when you get a bunch together there is a party going on. It’s loud!! 

Aurora Wolfe is kind of a goose. Don’t say she’s silly (though she can joke). Her artwork deals a lot with identity. Like the niska, someone can be between a few worlds with definitions falling away to natural ways of being. Aurora wants to get away from dwelling on trauma, but her work does deal with pain. It’s like pain in a good way. Pain can be a reward and reminder of hard work and of care. Like after a workout your body’s pain reminds you that you are doing some good for yourself. I bet them niska have some pain after flying from Northern Canada all the way down to Florida. Being all exhausted from that journey and floating in those tropical wetlands would feel all that much sweeter I bet. You know an artist feels pain and it is tied into their work? These paintings are laborious! We are practically performing a stone age ritual of smearing paint on surfaces to depict the world and our mental landscapes. What an obsolete technology! Artists’ bodies ache from all that monotonous physical work, I swear. Making art is kinda like making my toddler son handmade macaroni noodles and cheese. I would be so proud of my work watching him gobble it up from all that noodle rolling and whisking the cheesy roux. But honestly he would probably not even appreciate all that labour that went into it. Kinda like art eh? 

In Aurora’s largest work at BAM she has painted a group of Niska on a shrouded cloudlike background. The geese’s necks are long as they wind through twists and turns and sometimes intertwining with each other creating a shape that resembles a mapped journey. The geese are a punchy red with a stained neon red glowing off of their forms. Of course my mind goes to migrations and how our science can’t explain how geese navigate their long journeys returning to the same place every year. Some scientists say it's an acute olfactory sense that they can map the world through a dimension of smells while other scientists theorize that geese orient themselves using the Earth’s magnetic field. Both these theories deal with niska having heightened senses in natural ways that humans can’t comprehend. Either explanation works well with the depiction of geese emanating a life force, intertwined together on a cloudy ambiguous background.  

Geese are funny. They’ve got these long necks that look too skinny to hold that big head up. It’s not a stiff neck too, those things can move, bend and smack you. How are their necks that strong? It can’t be all muscle; there’s got to be vertebrae, windpipes, throat tubes, veins and stuff. Aurora plays with the physical form of geese a lot. She’s done a few paintings and sculptures messing with it. This one at BAM she imagines the niska neck as a nonsolid form that weaves, knots, and braids like yarn or hair. In a way that isn’t too absurd. When something is knotted and woven it increases strength by degrees while still maintaining its movement and form. There is something to say about separate strands braided and knotted together that are bonded to perform a task. I’m sure it’s function beyond aesthetic.  

Another work “dna geese” has two geese forms mirroring each other in a design that reminds me of an Egyptian motif. The geese are facing each other with their necks intertwined in a shape resembling a DNA double helix. I have heard that geese mate for life and that life events can change how DNA is expressed; both changing your life but also your future generations. While there are lots of studies published on how trauma can be passed generationally, what about the flip side? Is our relationship of care and community passed down as well? Is the labour of our bodies and hearts towards one another not only shaping our present lived experience but also changing our DNA makeup and then the DNA expressions passed down to our future generations? It’s an optimistic and profound thought process. We are more than this moment in time: a being choosing our actions. We are connecting to the lives around us and are changing their futures and generations afterwards. It’s this type of stewardship and interconnectedness that niska and our other animal friends know all about and that we humans need to realize.   

 This artist project and writing associated with it was funded with the generous support of a curating grant from SK Arts