Manuel Axel Strain is a 2Spirit artist from the lands and waters of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Simpcw and Syilx peoples, based in the sacred homelands of their q̓ic̓əy̓(Katzie) and qʼʷa:n̓ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen) relatives. Strain’s parents are Tracey Strain and Eric Strain, Strain’s grandparents are Harold Eustache (Chu Chua), Marie Louis (nk̓maplqs), Helen Point (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) and John Strain (Irish). Strain’s Great Grandparents Are Tina Cole (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) and Tony Point (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Rose and Ben Louis (nk̓maplqs) and Manuel and Christine Eustache (Chu Chua). Although they attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design they prioritize Indigenous epistemologies through the embodied knowledge of their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents and ancestors.
Creating artwork in collaboration with and reference to their relatives, their shared experiences become a source of agency that resonates through their work with performance, land, painting, sculpture, photography, video, sound and installation. Their artworks often envelop subjects in relation with ancestral and community ties, Indigeneity, labour, resource extraction, gender, Indigenous medicines and life forces. Strain often perceives their work to confront and undermine the imposed realities of colonialism. offering a new space that can exist beyond its matrix. They have contributed work to the Capture Photography Festival through Richmond Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, and more distant places across Turtle Island.
Strain’s work can be characterized as being informed by their family's personal and political contemporalities: to be 2S, to be Indigenous is simply political, socially challenging and very regional. This exhibition features stories of Strain’s relatives that allude to the enduring thrivence, wisdom and vitality of Indigenous families. This work is about the time-honoured passages to and from Manuel Strain’s paternal and maternal ancestral homelands, as experienced by their family members. For Strain, these experiences evoke the seasonal run that salmon take between bodies of water.
The stories presented in this exhibition are from these journeys, collected and presented in video, audio and installation, and disclose themes related to forest fires, residential schools, plant and salmon siblings.
For this exhibition Strain collaborated with Tracey Eustache, Eric Strain, Condesa Strain, Quintasket Strain, Segwses Strain, Cam Strain, Elli-May Eustache, Julie Eustache, and Kalli Van Stone.
