Tattooing is inherently Indigenous. Our hands make magic, our hands heal hurt. Through the stitching of skins we connect to things that we know but can’t always see. The works presented in As Old As The Hills are a step back to see how much is interconnected. Like a spider, we innately weave webs to catch what we need to nourish our souls.
As an artist who practices handpoke and skin stitching tattooing traditions, I see how tattooing acts as a mirror. I am slowly unpacking Nehiyawak tattooing to see what it is made up of. I am exploring natural pigments, stories, dreams, transference, and the savage. I am noticing how the adornment of our bodies through clothing, jewelry and tattoos carry with them power and protection. I am curious about tattoo culture as a whole and how the term ‘traditional tattoos’ carry multiple definitions. How do old school traditional American tattoos reflect in current culture? How does historical slang continue to perpetuate colonial perspectives? At what point does tattoo culture at large converge with Indigenous cultures?
Audie Murray is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with various materials including beadwork, quillwork, textiles, repurposed objects, drawing, and media. She is Michif, raised and working in Regina, Saskatchewan, treaty 4 territory. Much of her family and family histories are located in the Qu’Appelle and Meadow Lake regions of Saskatchewan. Audie holds a visual arts diploma from Camosun College, 2016; Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Regina, 2017; and is currently an MFA student at the University of Calgary. She has shown at various locations including the Alberta Art Gallery, The Vancouver Art Gallery, The Glenbow Museum, and the Anchorage Museum.
Audie is a practicing cultural tattoo practitioner working with hand poke and skin stitching methods. She was mentored by the Earthline Tattoo Collective in the summer of 2017 and continues to work with the collective. Her tattoo practice is an extension of her visual arts practice through the reclamation and assertion of Indigenous bodies and the intertwining presence of themes like medicine, healing and growth.
Audie's art practice is informed by the process of making and visiting. Her practice explores themes of contemporary culture and how this relates to experiences of duality and connectivity. Working with specific material choices, she often uses found objects from daily life and transmutes them . This practice is a way to reclaim and work through various subject matter, much of it relating to the body, space, and relationships with a focus on the intersection and expansion of time.
For more information about Audie’s work, visit her website..
