(b. 1967 & 1969)
Located in CB 201.4, hallway outside CB 208 (College Avenue 2nd Floor)
Parallel Worlds, Intersecting Moments, 2012
Beads on stroud cloth, online video
28″ x 20″ ea.
University of Regina President’s Art Collection (Annual Indigenous Acquisition); pc.2019.03
Parallel Worlds, Intersecting Moments (2012) consists of two beaded Quick Response (QR) codes collaboratively created by Judy Anderson and Rachelle Viader Knowles. The artists were faculty members at First Nations University and the University of Regina at the time the artwork was made. Optically machine-readable, the codes are created using traditional beading techniques. When two viewers scan the QR codes on their personal devices, they are directed to a series of videos which feature Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from Saskatchewan speaking about their personal experiences with new technologies and communication. The artwork draws on Indigenous storytelling traditions and material culture to explore cross-cultural dialogues around the subject of technology.
Videos are available to view here.
Further information is available in the essay, QR Codes and Traditional Beadwork: Augmented Communities Improvising Together by Rebecca Caines, Rachelle Viader Knowles and Judy Anderson (M/C Journal, vol. 16, no. 6, 2013), here.
Artist biographies
Judy Anderson is a Cree artist from the Gordon First Nation, SK. Her work is deeply personal with a focus on issues of spirituality, family, graffiti and popular representations of Aboriginal people, all of which are created with the purpose of honoring the people in her life. She holds a BA and a BFA from the University of Saskatchewan and an MFA from the University of Regina. Anderson was a faculty member at the First Nations University of Canada and the University of Regina and is currently a faculty member at the University of Calgary.
Dr Rachelle Viader Knowles is an artist, educator and researcher. Her most recent works explore text and language, translocality, dialogue as art, and artistic practices/methods developed through participation, collaboration and networks. In 2007 she was a finalist for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s contemporary art prize, and in 2008 she was the selected recipient of the Canada Council Paris Studio award. Viader Knowles served as Head of Visual Arts at the University of Regina in from 2010–2014.
This artwork was purchased as the University of Regina’s Annual Acquisition of Indigenous Artwork in 2019.