Remai Modern Showing Dana Claxton Acquisition

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Dana Claxton, "Rattle," (installation view), 2003

four-channel video installation with sound, 11:10 min. (Collection of Remai Modern. Purchased with the support of the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation, 2019)

The Remai Modern in Saskatoon is exhibiting its recent acquisition of a four-channel video installation by acclaimed multimedia artist Dana Claxton.

Rattle, 2003, combines moving image with audio of Peyote songs performed using synthesizers, creating a spiritual space within the gallery.

“For more than 30 years, Dana Claxton has made art that addresses the impacts of colonialism and makes space for Indigenous voices,” says curator Sandra Fraser. “Rattle offers a profoundly beautiful experience. It is an honour to bring Claxton’s work into the permanent collection and to share it with our audiences.”

The film reflects the Lakota belief that earth and sky are a continuum where the above-world and the below-world mirror each other. Claxton says the work is both a visual prayer and a symbolic tale. 

Claxton’s long-time collaborator Russell Wallace composed electronic music for the piece, while the Peyote songs were performed by Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike.

Rattle is on view in the Remai's free space from Nov. 22 to Jan. 7.

Claxton is originally from Yorkton, Sask. Her family reserve is Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation. She is based in Vancouver, where she is a professor at the University of British Columbia.

Her work has been shown internationally at prominent institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

Source: Remai Modern