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The C2 Centre for Craft in Winnipeg’s Exchange District is inviting viewers on a journey through space, time, and alternate realities in June.
Prairie Star Deck II is the creation of Edmonton artist AJA Louden, and its unique combinations of fabric and yarn not only harken back to a different time but also conjure ideas of an Afrofuturist world.
“I just have this story that has been kind of sent to me,” says Louden, “and I feel the need to urgently share the lessons and teachings that I’m finding in it.”
That story came to Louden in studies about how craft has been such an integral part not only of his Jamaican family where his mother made clothes for him and his family, but in the context of rural Alberta where he was raised. “If you don’t live in a big city, you might not have access to just be able to buy everything,” he elaborates. “Often, you need to make it yourself. And in my mind, this is where it really comes from when we’re problem-solving in our own context.”
The grounded, pastoral nature of the crafting that Louden participates in comes into contact with the future on Prairie Star Deck II. “Giant solar powered floral blooms burst from the motherboard ground,” a description from the Manitoba Craft Council reads. “Bulbous floral tipped stems taught with unreleased energy wait to zing from their frames.”
For Louden, who grew up reading vintage science fiction, this futuristic description is not disconnected from the realities of homemade clothes and rural stories woven together. “When I think about the future, I think about how some things will be different, but so much will be the same,” he says. “The technology might be a little bit different. There’s going to be some changes in culture. Hopefully, power will be shared more equitably.”
“It’s up to us now to decide what the future holds for us and what we keep with the present and bring to the future. Those are the seeds we’re planting today.”
While it offers some ideas of what the future can hold, Prairie Star Deck II leaves a lot of that vision open for interpretation. “One of our strengths as a species is the ability to solve problems from diverse perspectives,” Louden explains. “When I look at the scale of problems that we’re dealing with right now... our ability to handle these challenges is really going to be contingent on our ability to work together. And when we work together and we have different skills, we can become more than the sum of our parts. That’s something I’m really excited about projecting into the future.”
Prairie Star Deck II will be on display at the C2 Centre for Craft with the Manitoba Arts Council until June 26. For hours and more information, patrons are encouraged to visit the gallery’s website.