Maria Hupfield: The One Who Keeps On Giving

“Maria Hupfield’s work suggests that we might more effectively explore real things—objects and ideas manifested through objects—not by concealing the processes of representation but by manipulating them in various ways to see what is revealed.“ — Richard William Hill, p. 83

This publication was co-produced by The Power Plant; Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, and Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris in conjunction with the exhibition Maria Hupfield: The One Who Keeps On Giving presented 28 January - 17 May 2017.

Maria Hupfield is known for hand-sewn objects made from industrial felt which are activated through performances that address narrative, memory, and materiality. To Hupfield, objects are the result of actions, containing traces of human gesture. Through material exploration, her work attempts to break down objects and the meanings that we bring to or receive from them.

The exhibition title, The One Who Keeps on Giving, refers to an approximated English translation of Hupfield’s mother’s Anishinaabe name. In a commissioned performance, with the same title as the exhibition and presented as a video installation, Hupfield and her siblings—her brother, an award-winning Powwow dancer; and her sister, and award-winning Powwow singer—carry an oil painting of a seascape by their late mother, centering its objecthood as just one part of a larger conversation about the inter-relational potential of objects, humans, and cultural environments.

The book includes texts by Crystal Migwans and Richard William Hill, as well as a conversation between Maria Hupfield and Andrea Geyer.

Product Information

Publisher: The Power Plant
Year: 2017
Pages: 128
Illustrations: Colour
Dimensions: 27.5 x 19.5 cm, hardcover