‘eenódsha’ means ‘to hear’
Logan MacDonald – 2021
Artist Logan MacDonald presents an exhibition that confronts how accessing knowledge can be impacted and transformed by disability. MacDonald’s work is prompted by the question: “How do I create, when I am missing pieces?”.
Drawing from his own experience with degenerative hearing loss, which stems from the same hereditary line as his Mi’kmaw roots, MacDonald focuses his work on building a hand drum, and compensating in lyrical and imaginative ways where knowledge has been fragmented or inaccessible. In conjunction, MacDonald confronts this complex challenge by also pulling at the role colonialism has played in creating barriers to access Indigenous knowledge, by symbolically incorporating found fragments of a Sir John A. Macdonald bronze statue, as well as the bronze death mask of the first Prime Minister of Canada, which MacDonald inherited.
Read the accompanying response by Linda Grussani.
‘eenódsha’ means ‘to hear’ was on display in the Main Gallery from March 20, 2021 to August 20, 2021.
Photos by Chris Miner.
About the Artist
Logan MacDonald
Logan MacDonald is an artist, curator, writer, educator and activist who focuses on identity and belonging through queer, disability, and decolonial perspectives. He is of mixed-European, and Mi’kmaw ancestry, who identifies with both his Indigenous and settler roots. Born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, his Mi’kmaw ancestry is connected to Elmastukwek, Ktaqamkuk. His artwork has exhibited across North America, notably with exhibitions at L.A.C.E. (Los Angeles), John Connelly Presents (New York), Ace Art Inc. (Winnipeg), The Rooms (St. John’s), and BACA (Montréal), in addition to being published by Goose Lane, Canadian Art, C Magazine, UN Projects, and more. In 2019, MacDonald was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award and was honoured with a six-month residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. He holds a BFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Concordia University, and a MFA in Studio Arts from York University. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Indigenous Curatorial Collective (ICCA), and is a Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor in Studio Arts at University of Waterloo.