We go to the Mountains, we go to the Big Water by Manuel Axel Strain at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art

Now on view in the Main Gallery of the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is ‘We go to the Mountains, we go to the Big Water’ by Manuel Axel Strain. Manuel Axel Strain is a non-binary 2-Spirit artist with Musqueam/Simpcw/Inkumupulux(Syilx) ancestry, based on stolen, sacred and ancestral homelands and waters of the Katzie/Kwantlen peoples. Although they have attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design they are more appreciative of the knowledge they have gained from their family and ancestors. Creating artwork in dialogue, collaboration, and in reference with their kin/relatives. Their lived experience becomes a source of agency that resonates through their work with performance, painting, sculpture, photography, video, audio and installation. ‘We go to the Mountains, we go to the Big Water’ 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 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 explore themes related to forest fires, residential schools, plant and salmon siblings. ‘We go to the Mountains, we go to the Big Water’ is on view in the Main Gallery until June 25, 2022. The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is open Tuesday to Friday, 11am – 6pm, and Saturday 11am – 4pm. To learn more about this exhibition visit http://www.alternatorcentre.com.