Indigenous Art in the Library: Greg Staats
Greg Staats
Photo retrieved from Art Gallery of Ontario website
Greg Staats is a Toronto artist who works in photography, performance, video installation, and sculpture. His current work is engaged in an ongoing process of reconnecting with a traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) restorative aesthetic. This aesthetic, related to condolence ceremonies occurring after the death of a community member or titleholder, relies on the shared repetitive experience of trauma and renewal. Staats’ practice uses language, mnemonics, and the natural world to reconnect with this cultural history.1