Art For and From Community: A Review of The Digital Mural

(Homepage, The Digital Mural)

    With the continued growth of internet-based creative spaces and digital art and styles, online art exhibitions have also begun to pick up traction. This transition to online media is not always implemented smoothly, but The Digital Mural art exhibition website, from the Canadian Roots Exchange and the Red Beans Group, executes the platform with simplicity in both policy and format. The online mural is a space where the work of Indigenous artists is promoted and showcased across a variety of mediums and also functions as a well-constructed and easy to navigate website. Through both the online platform and the artistic works themselves, The Digital Mural excels at fostering their messages of inclusivity and community through a well-executed digital environment.

    The Digital Mural is an online exhibition featuring a large collection of multi-media artwork. All artwork is curated from Indigenous artists consisting of mediums such as beading, painting, digital art, makeup and many different types of sculptures. It is curated by a team of five people, who range from museum curators to art writers to current students, as well as being artists themselves. All curators are Canadian, hailing from Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario, furthering the mural project’s community-driven ideals. The Digital Mural website appears to have been created for the express purpose of this exhibition of Indigenous art, as there are no other events or showings on their website. Although this could be considered restrictive compared to major art exhibitions and museums, the simplicity of a single showcase is more indicative of the humility and creative nature of art. The collection has one focus, their goals and values are clearly outlined which, as well as the collection of art itself, avoids ambiguity around the gallery’s mission and creates a space for Indigenous artists to thrive. Their exhibition description reads that the mural is a project “that engages with concepts of community, care, and resilience” (The Digital Mural). They also address the “potential isolation and disconnect” (The Digital Mural) happening in the wave of the pandemic and claim that this showcase is an opportunity for Indigenous artists to share their projects to promote awareness of their communities, social issues and cultural practices or traditions. In an isolating time like the Covid-19 pandemic, Indigenous movements such as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls must continue to spread awareness and activism and this digital gallery organizes and showcases their curated art, involving activism or not, in a simple yet organic and impactful way. It also exists as a safe and promotive place for Indigenous artists to share their craft in a formal and professional gallery setting in the wave of the pandemic. The inclusivity of online submissions and digital art provides a well-rounded space in which digital drawings and art with digital manipulation can be experienced in an online setting, as printing them out may lessen the effect or resolution of some of these pieces.

    The artworks themselves are arranged on a singular page to be explored as a whole and can be clicked to reveal their own page with lengthy descriptions as well as photos or files of the art. The mural includes filters such as “Indigenous Feminism,” “Land,” “Kin,” “Resilience” and several more to sift through the multitude of artworks, not unlike sections in a physical museum (The Digital Mural). However, I find that the convenience of online navigation creates a more streamlined experience than walking through a large museum. The Digital Mural also includes tags to sort through the art by medium as well as subject matter. The only drawback of this platform is the inability to see any physical artworks in person. However, since any physical art such as sculptures and beadwork is photographed in high resolution, the benefit of convenient and widespread accessibility through the internet outweighs the loss of a physical space. In terms of solutions to access art in the midst of a global pandemic, this space is well-adaptive and inclusive to a great deal of artistic methods and mediums. As such, The Digital Mural is able to create a similar space to that of a physical art museum or exhibit, but with the advantages that come from an online platform.

    One of the artists that stands out in the many exhibitions is Camryn Mattie, a Kespu’kwitk Metis non-binary creator who created a beautiful piece on deforestation. The artist’s method involved taking a “large-scale” photo of an important forest to them and layering a digital rendering of fire drawing overtop using Photoshop, fusing the two elements together to create a finished piece (Mattie). This enrapturing and evocative work is able to capture a chilling and sad image of the effects of deforestation through fire, ash and colour. I believe this is a piece that conveys a balance of both activism and art, which supports the mission statement of the mural. This work diverges from the art shown on Mattie’s social media (Mattie), which shows a much more colour and an array of vibrant living nature scenery, a contrast which makes the Deforestation piece stand out as a grim reminder of our environment’s reality. The separation from Mattie’s typical art style to convey a passionate subject for them is likely the reason why this piece was submitted to the mural, especially considering how environmental destruction is a prolific topic amongst Indigenous activism and the message of destruction generally gains more traction than appreciation.

    Another artist featured on The Digital Mural is Chantelle Trainor-Matties, featuring a beautiful recreation of one of her paintings for a Chilliwack festival that has been turned into a digital rendering. Trainor-Matties is a prolific freelance Abbotsford graphic designer and painter and this work is a beautiful representation of her work, employing clean lines, bold blue and black tones and similarities to common Indigenous artistic stylings. Her personal website showcases a great deal of her work in both similar styles to her submission to The Digital Mural, as well as some cartoon and still life pieces that diverge slightly from her submission to the gallery (Trainor-Matties). This particular piece, titled Art and a Proverb, derives from her Nisga’a and Metis heritage, featuring illustrations of salmon and seals in striking black and shades of blue. Trainor-Matties has included the proverb “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children” (Trainor-Matties) as a reference to the global responsibility to look after our earth and the creatures that inhabit it. With the addition of this proverb in the digital version of the art, she provides a clearer motive for her work than simply art for art’s sake, bringing to mind the connection her and other Indigenous creators’ art has to the land and environment that continues to be destroyed.

    In the wake of a global pandemic, art and self-expression have become a solace for many people, but most professional outlets have been diverted into a primarily online setting due to physical restrictions. Although that may lessen the effect of some artistic formats, exhibitions such as The Digital Mural do an effective job of fostering artistic works and creativity, creating a widespread and inclusive online community. By bringing together a wide variety of Indigenous artists to share their pieces and engage with their culture or raise awareness for community issues, or both, The Digital Mural lessens the disadvantages and enhances the advantages of online art exhibitions to create a space for Indigenous voices and creativity.