

Audie Murray Métis, b. 1993
Four-Point Ply, 2019
Toilet paper, seed beads
4 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches
10.2 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm
10.2 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm
Photo: Isaac Forsland
Price on request
Four-Point Ply, 2019, challenges the idea that Indigenous beadwork must be preserved to be valued. Beaded directly onto toilet paper, a material meant to be discarded, the piece questions Western...
Four-Point Ply, 2019, challenges the idea that Indigenous beadwork must be preserved to be valued. Beaded directly onto toilet paper, a material meant to be discarded, the piece questions Western expectations around permanence, care, and the archive. The use of Hudson’s Bay Company stripes points to the colonial legacy of the HBC, whose role in the fur trade linked the exploitation of Indigenous lands and labour with the circulation of beads as trade goods. Beads, once tools of colonial exchange, have long been re-claimed by Indigenous artists as powerful materials of cultural continuity and innovation. By combining beadwork with an object of everyday use and ephemerality, Murray critiques how Indigenous art and peoples are often treated as a commodity.
Exhibitions
you can travel all alone or you can come along with me, Fazakas Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Sept 27 - Oct 26, 2019ExtraOrdinary Objects, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, Oct. 19, 2019 - Jan. 12, 2020
Radical Stitch, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK, April 30 - Sept. 25, 2022; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, Feb 10 - May 28, 2023; Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, ON, Oct 13, 2023 - Mar 3, 2024; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, May 17 - Sept 30, 2024; Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB, Nov 30, 2024 - Mar 21, 2025; Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN, April 21 - Aug 3, 2025