Cell

Cell is a work that was inspired by the civil rights movement, notions of the self, and ideas of nation and community. It was inspired by the sacrifices that individuals have made in defense of those ideas or movements and how histories are constructed to unite a people at the expense of the “truth.” It is about time and space, or rather the illusion of time and space, with the idea of entanglement, and how we are all connected beyond our ideas of separation. How we dream of unity when we are divided and polarized by ideas of right and wrong and left and right. How this strategy has served humanity in its survival in adverse conditions and is hard-wired into our system. Which raises the question: Will we ever be united at all?

Not in my lifetime, he says with a twisted smile. Coyote meanders off, stage left.

In the first artist’s statement that I ever wrote, called Indian Territory, I said something like “my skin is my border….” Looking back after all these years I realize I was wrong, and that this was a selfish notion. We are connected in many ways as individuals and communities, yet we use division to capitalize on opportunity and to gain an advantage for the sake of propagating the self, the state, and the nation. We exploit others for this reason and create situations such as war and tragedy. I want what you have and these are the justifications for taking it. The Papal Bulls issued by the Catholic Church in 1450 and 1493 are classic examples of this justification. They say there is separation of church and state, yet these have set a precedent for taking non-Christian lands, such as Indian and Aboriginal lands—at least some people were lucky to have signed treaties, thereby setting a position of sovereignty.

The reservation is a cell, yet it is sovereign territory. John Tootoosis, an Indian elder statesman, said and believed that it is a small state, a nation. It’s important that people think this way. This country is a cell, this world is a cell, this galaxy is a cell—it all becomes relative to how you look at it. In every small and large unit there is division. It seems to be a fundamental principal of our existence, and the dynamics of interaction are just a part of this big picture. Will there ever be unity? Not in this reality. Maybe in death and maybe that is why we have these apocalyptic fantasies and dreams of an end—it may be the only way that unity will ever happen. People unite in extreme situations where life is in the balance: us against nature, the other, the dark, and the negative. We are small in the face of the forces of nature. Perhaps we are hard-wired for survival. After being on this earth a million years and witnessing the constant change from day into night, I believe that we are conditioned and programmed by our reality to think this way. It is a template for existence.

- Edward Poitras