Apology Dice consists of participants, three large dice, and a blanket.
Each die is cast one at a time, and in order, to form a sentence. The letters of the first die begin with a capital letter. The second die has no punctuation. The word or words of the third die end in a period. ‘I am / so / sorry,’ ‘We are / not / sorry,’ ‘They are / very tired / of this,’ ….
The participant reads the sentence aloud and responds. Is this how they feel? Is this the opposite of what they feel?
The Indian Residential Schools are a living tragedy for Aboriginal people. This work is not intended to make light of this dark legacy but to be a disarming vehicle to prompt discussion. Apology Dice are only to be rolled in an environment of contemplation and conversation. Participants must be willing to share and discuss their thoughts and feelings.
Artists:
David Garneau (Métis) is Associate Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Regina. He is a painter of road kill and drive-by landscapes, Métis themes, maps, comics, and quilts. Garneau is also a curator and writer most interested in the collision of nature and culture, metaphysics and materialism, and in contemporary Indigenous identities. He has curated large group, two-person, and solo exhibitions, and written numerous catalogues, including essays on Lyndal Osborn; Peter von Tiesenhausen; Tanya Harnett; Michael Campbell; Linda Duvall; David Hoffos; Eric Cameron and Chris Gardiner.
Clement Yeh holds a BFA in Drawing from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MFA in Sculpture from Concordia University. His interests range widely across beauty, social injustice, environmentalism, craft, feminism, human rights, design, eroticism, pop culture, science fiction/fantasy, and whatever else catches his fancy. He finds daily inspiration everywhere around him, and always seeks to make contemporary visual art accessible to the general public. Despite the many hurdles and instability often associated with the artist's vocation, Clement makes art because that is the only path that he could ever be happy pursuing. Knowing this compels him to passionately support his current art community as well as the next generation of artists whenever he can. Complementing his personal studio practice is Makerbros.com, his Montreal-based custom prop/sculpture company in partnership with sculptor Ian Langohr, which offers him an alternate source of income, a place to continually hone his technical skills, and another platform from which to share his work with new audiences. He is looking forward to working on more collaborative projects, such as Apology Dice, that explore the conversation around social inequalities in Canada.
