Sign Language -Indigenous Resurgence & Redirections
Solo Exhibition at TAP Centre for Creativity, London ON
April 2018
Sign Language: Indigenous Resurgence and Redirections is a large scale mixed-media sculptural installation work featuring several road signs, which have been recreated using traditional Indigenous (Cree) materials to raise consciousness about Indigenous peoples’ presence, land dispossession, and future relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers in Canada. In this work, I use glass cut seed beads, satin and ribbon applique, deer hide, and copper poles to explore the hidden language system of signs, and ask important questions around: What are our relationships to Indigenous peoples and the land? As a First Nation’s woman, my work indirectly speaks to how Indigenous peoples’ presence has been erased in mainstream society, and how Indigenous peoples’ rights and relationships to land have been ignored through settler colonialism. In this work, I look specifically at the role that traffic signs play in regulating and governing settler relations. Recognizing the powerful nature and purposes of road signs as reinforcing settler rules and regulations, and in doing so, in my opinion, often altering humans’ relationships with each other, the land and animals (e.g. reinforcing land as property as oppose to land as relation and teacher), I appropriate these tools to disrupt and resist their subliminal messages and redirect our attention to Indigenous peoples’ presence, resistance, and relationships to land. In this way, my work is an act of Indigenous resurgence. Through the act of appropriating everyday colonial symbols and texts, and strategically altering them by using traditional Cree materials, I strive to unearth Indigenous ways of knowing and relating to land and privilege Indigenous voices.
Road Sign sculptures 2017-2018
 Exhibition Catalogue
Solo Exhibition - Sign Language
Indigenous Resurgence & Resilience
TAP Centre for Creativity
London, ON
April 2018 |  Road Sign stickers
Exhibition Catalogue
Solo Exhibition - Sign Language
Indigenous Resurgence & Resilience
TAP Centre for Creativity
London, ON
April 2018 |  Exhibition Catalogue
Holly Pichette
Solo Exhibition - Sign Language
Indigenous Resurgence & Resilience
TAP Centre for Creativity
London, ON
April 2018 |
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 Directing Consent
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
56cm x 101cm x 40cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  Directing Consent
Holly Pichette Solo Exhibition - Sign Language
Indigenous Resurgence & Resilience
TAP Centre for Creativity
London, ON
April 2018 |  Directing Consent
Holly Pichette Solo Exhibition - Sign Language
Indigenous Resurgence & Resilience
TAP Centre for Creativity
London, ON
April 2018 |
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 ᒫᐗᒋᐦᐃᑐᐎᓐ - Gathering Zone
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer
51cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᒫᐗᒋᐦᐃᑐᐎᓐ - Gathering Zone
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer
51cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᒫᐗᒋᐦᐃᑐᐎᓐ - Gathering Zone
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer
51cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |
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 ᐊᔅᑮᐎ ᑭᔅᑭᓄᐦᐊᒫᑫᐎᓐ - Education Comes from the Land
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete,
51cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᐊᔅᑮᐎ ᑭᔅᑭᓄᐦᐊᒫᑫᐎᓐ - Education Comes from the Land
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete,
51cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᐃᓕᓕᐤ ᐊᔅᑭᔾ- Cree Country
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
48cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |
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 ᐃᓕᓕᐤ ᐊᔅᑭᔾ- Cree Country
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
48cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  Holly Pichette Solo Exhibition - Sign Language
Indigenous Resurgence & Resilience
TAP Centre for Creativity
London, ON
April 2018 |  ᐅᔥᑭ ᒣᔅᑲᓇᐤ - New Road
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
45cm x 198cm x 16cm,
Holly Pichette
2018 |
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 ᐅᔥᑭ ᒣᔅᑲᓇᐤ - New Road
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
45cm x 198cm x 16cm,
Holly Pichette
2018 |  Slow Down - pehkâc
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
86cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  Slow Down - pehkâc
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
86cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |
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 ᑖᐺᐎᓐ ᓀᔥᑕ ᒪᓈᒋᐦᐃᑐᐎᓐ ᑲᑕ ᐃᐦᑕᑾᓋ ᐊᓐᑌ ᓃᑳᓐ᙮ - Trust and Mutual Respect Ahead
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
51cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᑖᐺᐎᓐ ᓀᔥᑕ ᒪᓈᒋᐦᐃᑐᐎᓐ ᑲᑕ ᐃᐦᑕᑾᓋ ᐊᓐᑌ ᓃᑳᓐ᙮ - Trust and Mutual Respect Ahead
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
51cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᒪᓈᒋᐦᐃᑐᒄ- Respect One Another
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
71cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |
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 ᒪᓈᒋᐦᐃᑐᒄ- Respect One Another
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
71cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᒪᓈᒋᐦᐃᑐᒄ- Respect One Another
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
71cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |  ᐅᔥᑭ ᐱᔅᑭᐦᑕᓯᓇᐦᐃᑲᓐ - New Chapter New Direction
satin, ribbon, seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
71cm x 198cm x 16cm
Holly Pichette
2018 |
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Road Sign Sculptures
I decontextualize. Then, I reconstruct road signs to make political statements about Indigenous peoples’ presence, sovereignty and colonial dispossession. I am currently focused on experimenting with the different way I can use traditional materials such as seed beads, deer/moose hide along with paint to alter actual road signs. My goal is to disrupt and resist colonial assumptions and inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the world around them, and redirect them to Indigenous peoples’ knowledge as an act of resurgence.
 One Way?
Seed beads, deer hide, wood, concrete
198cm x 61cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |  One Way?
Seed beads, deer hide, wood, concrete
198cm x 61cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |  One Way?
Seed beads, deer hide, wood, concrete
198cm x 61cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |
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 Rights of Way
Seed beads, deer hide, copper, concrete
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Restoration Ahead
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint, wood, concrete
51cm x 40cm x 3.8cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Restoration Ahead
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint, wood, concrete
51cm x 40cm x 3.8cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |
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 Restoration Ahead
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint, wood, concrete
51cm x 40cm x 3.8cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |  Kipichi
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint acetate
244cm x 91cm x 91cm
Holly Pichette
2016 |
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 Rebellion, Resurgence, Resilience
Holly Pichette
3rd Year Graduate Exhibition
TAP Centre for Creativity
London, ON
2017 |  Rebellion
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint
60cm x 76cm x 5cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Resilience
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint
60cm x 76cm x 5cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |
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 Resurgence
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint
60cm x 76cm x 5cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Kipichi
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint acetate
244cm x 91cm x 91cm
Holly Pichette
2016 |  Kipichi - close up
seed beads, vinyl, acrylic paint acetate
244cm x 91cm x 91cm
Holly Pichette
2016 |
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 Privilege Checkpoint Ahead
Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |  Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |  Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |
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 Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |  Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |  Privilege Checkpoint Ahead
Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |
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 Privilege Checkpoint Ahead
Holly Pichette
Road Sign Sculptures
Pushing Back exhibition
Satellite Gallery, London ON
2017 |  Barriers and Blockades
seed beads, vinyl, concrete, wood, acrylic paint
variable sizes
Holly Pichette
2017 |  150 Years
seed beads, vinyl, concrete, wood, acrylics
263cm x 91cm x 25cm
Holly Pichette
2017 |
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 Resistance 150 Collection of road sign sculptures
variable sizes
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Equal Rights Equal Access
seed beads, vinyl, concrete, wood, acrylic paint
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Equal Rights Equal Access
seed beads, vinyl, concrete, wood, acrylic paint
Holly Pichette
2017 |
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 Dead End
seed beads, vinyl, wood, concrete, acrylic paint
244cm x 61cm x 61cm
Holly Pichette
2016 |  Pipeline Deconstruction Ahead
seed beads, vinyl, wood, concrete, acrylic paint
244cm x 91cm x 91cm
Holly Pichette
2016 |  Anicibi means drinking water
seed beads, vinyl, wood, concrete, acrylic paint
244cm x 91cm x 91cm
Holly Pichette
2016 |
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 Pipeline Deconstruction Ahead
seed beads, vinyl, wood, concrete, acrylic paint
244cm x 91cm x 91cm
Holly Pichette
2016 |  Collection of road sign sculptures
Studio shot
Holly Pichette
2017 |  Collection of road sign sculptures
Studio shot
Holly Pichette
2017 |
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