Wrapped in the Cloud

“Wrapped in the Cloud © by Jaad Kuujus (Meghann O’Brien) produced in collaboration with Conrad Sly, Hannah Turner, Reese Muntean, and Kate Hennessy, is an otherworldly video that reveals the layers that connect community and ancestral knowledge, representing the often inexpressible depths of love and culture. Wrapped in the Cloud is a digital representation of a weaving called Sky Blanket by Jaad Kuujus (Meghann O’Brien), that reveals what our eyes cannot see when looking at the weaving. We are let into a sacred realm that shows us how every ancestor holds space in the constellations created through the process of weaving threads together. The warp and weft change the structure of the threads, making them stronger once woven together. Through collaboration with other artists, and community, Wrapped in the Cloud is stronger for the shared knowledge, care, and presence of each person and spirit that has had impact on the making of the weaving and the video. It all comes together through Jaad Kuujus (Meghann O’Brien) who brings this work into existence.” 

See Full Exhibition Essay here.

“A new extension from AbTeC Island was created to accommodate another piece by Jaad Kuujus called Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother (2020), which is in stark contrast to her other work. In it, you walk down a narrow hallway to a completely black space that seemingly never ends; within this void is a series of plain white t-shirts hung on a rolling clothing rack with one hanger empty. Next to this rack is a wall of moss with the one missing shirt suspended in front, speaking to the way that commercially made garments often disconnect us from their materiality and how they are produced.

Attendees are able to click on each of the artworks to see the accompanying didactic panels, which include storytelling by the artists. In Jaad Kuujus’s description, she writes that everyone always exclaims how she looks like her mother and adds, “She’s told me a few times that even though she never wove, my skill for weaving is something she gave me. To me this is the thread that can never be broken, those pieces of ourselves we are free to rediscover or connect with or dig deeper into to discover.” While this digital space itself does not solve our desire to meet in person, it offers the possibility for us to meet in a space other than the physical spaces we have come to know—a multi-transversal, digital universe that bridges community, history, and a futurity that allows us to imagine sovereign spaces.”

Link to review