miich / home is a multi channel video installation, centred around a scale model of Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Indian Affairs Branch designed dwelling of "Low Cost Housing - Canadian Indian Homes Programme,” the housing imposed on First Nation reserves accross Canada, implemented by the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation.
Archival research and exclusively sourced from government documents and news coverage, this this installations is quite definitely directed at the Canadian settler public to allow for an emotional understanding and empathy of the impacts of bureaucracy-led efforts of colonization and genocide.
Building on the practice of socio-critical art culture, much of Annette's work contributes to the dialogue within a growing community of settler artists who work in the context of decolonization to ultimately contribute meaningfully to reconciliation. Part of developing a framework for decolonization for us as non-indigenous artists is to “...turn our gaze, mirror-like, back upon ourselves, to what Roger Epp calls the “settler problem.” In essence, we must begin to take a more proactive responsibility for decolonizing ourselves.” (Paulette Regan, A Transformative Framework for Decolonizing Canada: A Non-Indigenous Approach, 2005; p. 6)
components: 3 videos, projected on canvas surfaces of scale model “low cost house”; petri dish with black mold, live projected for the duration of the 6 week exhibition;,miniature repetitious house sculptures; sound installation “Living in the new houses”
