Description
Coalesce by Barry Ace, and introduced by Suzanne Luke, is a fusion of distinct Anishinaabeg aesthetics of the Great Lakes region with refuse from Western society’s technological and digital age. Barry Ace is an Anishnaabe (Odawa) visual artist, writer, and educator and a band member of M’Chigeeng First Nation in Manitoulin Island. In Coalesce, he intentionally shifts an object’s materiality and its accepted paradigm within the physical world. Through the integration and juxtaposition of recognizable materials used in the making of Anishinaabeg material culture, such as glass beads and porcupine quills, with new-found materials, such as electronic components (capacitors and resistors), this body of work disproves any notion of Anishinaabeg cultural stasis.