In Oil We Trust
An Performance and temporary Public Art art installation by Tsēmā of Miscellaneous Arts Activities Inc. for OCICIWAN Artist-Run collective, May 14, 2022- November 1, 2023, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
As part of Tsēmā’s ongoing project Black Gold, the performance and installation both reckon with mining practices and the indisputably thriving yet ruinous extractive industries in the colonial states of British Columbia and Alberta, particularly within the context of the Athabasca oil sands and the pipelines that run from Alberta to the west coast. In Oil We Trust is a critical examination of the traditions of flag-flying and how flags relate to colonial ceremony and nationhood, and in turn how these things intersect and conflict with Indigenous world-building.
The performance emulates a flag raising ceremony yet, rather than the typical territorial symbology, the flag here is an image of bitumen: a proposal for a more realistic representation of Canada’s true interests and priorities. The durational installation was featured on a webcam live-feed of the raised flag, documenting its slow disintegration in the face of the elements and honouring the weather’s ability to ultimately dissolve the interests of colonial extraction (www.blkgld.ca).
In Oil We Trust was supported by the BC Arts Council, and the project was made possible with the help of research assistants, Haley McLean and Britany Quinn. Presented by Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective, 2022. Performance photos by Conor McNally. Text by Natasha Cheykowski.
