© 2026 Barry Pottle. All Rights Reserved.
Design Concept: The L. Project (www.thelproject.ca)
May 20 – October 10 2021
Art Gallery University of Guelph
Curator: Shauna McCabe
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Five days later, Canada closed its borders to international visitors, introducing emergency measures to contain the spread of the virus – measures that continue to shape everyday life around the world. Throughout, the arts have remained both a source and force of resilience, providing ways to navigate and understand the changing COVID-19 environment.
Taking its name from Anishinaabe artist Bonnie Devine’s recent work of the same title, Vectors of Transmission highlights recent projects by a number of Indigenous artists in response to the evolving pandemic. Offering insight into how the impacts of the virus are not experienced equally and consistently across populations, this emerging visual culture underscores the particular vulnerability of Indigenous communities that continue to experience social, economic, and health inequities as well as disparities in decision-making power. It also provides vital context for this novel virus. Addressing nuanced intersecting colonial histories that span continents and centuries, the artists’ work points to the importance of documenting the present as a way of reinterpreting the past and transforming the future.
See installation images here.
Art as Resilience | Vectors of Transmission Panel Discussion
Wednesday, October 7, 2021 | 6:30pm
Free | Online (Zoom)
Throughout the pandemic, the arts have remained both a source and force of resilience, providing ways to navigate and understand the changing COVID-19 environment. AGG’s exhibition Vectors of Transmission takes a look at this emerging visual culture, with a focus on the unique perspectives of Indigenous artists.
Join us on Wednesday, October 6, 6:30 pm, for a discussion with featured artists Ruth Cuthand, Bonnie Devine, Bea Parsons, Barry Pottle, and Katherine Takpannie, whose work provides vital context for this novel virus, highlighting how its impacts are not experienced equally and consistently across populations but are rather tied to wider colonial histories.
