MEMORY FLOWERS

Charlene Vickers | Solo Exhibition

Presented by Macaulay & Co.

March 16th - April 17th

Will Sampson the Muscogee Indigenous actor made an appearance in one of my dreams. He was my ride to some place. In our conversation, he explained he used to be an actor but that period was only a small part of his life. There were many things he had accomplished in his life that were equally or more important to him. His real passions were his family, community, and his art.

Memory Flowers are about passion, spiritual regeneration, and futurity. The gesture of flowers in paint are indicative of my presence as Anishinaabe Kwe (Ojibway Woman) in relation to my birth territory and ancestors. Will Sampson, is an ancestor, albeit in a fandom kind of way. My relationship to him is purely visual as cinematic experience from movies of the 70s. I know of him as a symbol of resistance, his quiet power-house stance of Indianess in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. His portrayal of Chief Bromden was the embodiment of refusal: refusal to speak or perform a role of stoic romanticism, or of any other stereotype of the time.

Memory Flowers evoke a similar self-contained and self-defined power; but they are not silent or solitary. The flowers and Jingle Cones are social and self-assured in gesture. Existing as cacophonous beings in day glow florescent pinks, oranges, and yellows. Each floral and cone hold their own space as unapologetic symbols of femaleness. Additionally, the work speaks of Indigenous gatherings, pow wow singing, dancing and connection to the land and water as reverberating sources of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual power.

– Charlene Vickers, 2023