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This public installation was commissioned by the Musqueam Cultural Education Resource Centre and the Museum of Anthropology. It evokes the ancient city of cesna?em within the borrowed form of a picture guidebook. The work plays on the word Marpole—the name assigned to the period of civilization that left behind the richest archeological site in the Pacific Northwest and the Vancouver neighbourhood built on top of it. Instead of the carved figures of the past, the guidebook photographs feature the poles of today.

AWARDED: Excellence in Exhibitions 2018,
BC Museums Association

The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford
Jan-May 2017

St Mary’s University Art Gallery
Halifax, Jun-Aug 2018

Diefenbaker Canada Centre Saskatoon, Jan-Mar10 2019

Art Gallery of Peterborough Apr-Jun 2019

Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, October 17, 2019 - January 5, 2020

Grand Forks Art Centre August 29-November 14, 2020

Grand Theft Terra Firma is an unflinching redress of Canada’s colonial narrative. By combining contemporary popular culture with historical source material, artists David Campion and Sandra Shields disrupt the celebratory mythology of nation building and invite us to critically evaluate our own continued and complicated relationship to colonial practices.

REVIEWS

Halifax Magazine      

CBC Arts

BC Studies        

Capture Festival

BC Museums Association Magazine: issue on Community Collaborations - See p. 14-21

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people helped bring Grand Theft Terra Firma to life. We gratefully acknowledge that the project would not have been possible without the influence and involvement of Indigenous thinkers, leaders, actors, friends, and neighbours. 

We respectfully acknowledge the opportunity to discuss the project, on several occasions, with members of the Stó:lō Xyolhmet S’olhetawtxw Sq’éq’ip House of Respect Caretaking Committee.

Our understanding of events that unfolded in S’ólh Téméxw was shaped by conversations with both indigenous and xwelítem thinkers including: Grand Chief Clarence Pennier & Nancy Pennier • Dr. Naxaxalhts’i Albert “Sonny” McHalsie • Dr. David Schaepe, Stó:lō Nation • Dr. Keith Thor Carlson, University of Saskatchewan • Dr. Wenona Victor, University of the Fraser Valley • Dr. John Lutz, University of Victoria • T’xwelátse Herb Joe and Helen Joe • Curtis Paul and Jacqueline Louis • suiki?st Pauline Terbasket • Laura Schneider • Kelly Terbasket • Larry Commodore • Sakej Ward • Robyn Heaslip • Josette Jim • Dr. Chad Reimer • Hugh Brody

The photographs were created in collaboration with the actors, many of whom are our friends and neighbours. This project would not have been possible without their willingness to engage both the subject and the camera. They brought the vision to life.  Character Portraits: Joel Bourne, Dylan Coulter, Bill Damer, Nial Harrison-Morry, Margaret Meunier, Jaret Penner, Robert Semeniuk, Bobby Sutton. Homeland Security: Calvin Douglas, Darwin Douglas, Kaila Mussell, Carrielynn Victor. The Few Good Whites: Garrison Bateman, Racheal Bateman, Cynthia Berge, Daniel Berge, Chris Smith, Jess Smith. Screenshots: Larry Commodore, Bernie George, Timothy Gray, Bob Gordon, Fred Jackson, Nicole LaRock, Evelyn McHalsie, Ocean Morgan, Vic Nickerso, Curtis Paul, Gerard Paul, Hailey Paul, Jeffrey Paul, Bart Phillips, Kameron Sherwood, Matt Tebbutt, Donna Tillotson, Alisha Trottier, Jordan Trottier, Owen Trottier, Myrna Williams, Darren Witzel.

For recreating the photo-studio backdrop: Shannon Bettles Reimer and Brenda Paterson. For crafting the Thou Shalt Not Steal tapestry: Terry Ann Stowell. For gameplay graphics: Shaun Friesen. For Halq’eméylem translation: Strang Burton and Muriel Roberts. Special thanks to the Chilliwack Archives: Shannon Bettles Reimer, Paul Ferguson, Jane Lemke.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council. 

This taxonomy of targets was sourced from logging roads in the mountains around Vancouver where gun owners come to fire their weapons. The products of these informal shooting galleries were taken back to the studio for examination with camera and lights. This series appeared in Thru the Trapdoor, the multi-artist “exhibit of the year” organized by On Main Gallery.

This site-specific installation at the Chilliwack Museum mimics tourist “points of interest.” The gallery is located in the former city council chambers where a permanent display of photographs of colonial pioneers hung on one wall. When these settlers arrived, many of them from the same European countries as the artists’ own ancestors, the land they claimed was already occupied by a long-established network of people and communities. In this work, the landscape itself counter-poses the stories of gain told by those who arrived in the last 150 years, and the stories of loss told by those who have lived here for thousands of years. 

These photographs were made while the Museum of Anthropology was being expanded. They study the problem described in a speech by then Lieutenant Governor and Stó:lō cultural leader Steven Point.

“On the one hand, these items were taken from the lands and the people. It is a sad feeling to see them here. On the other hand, if many of these pieces had not been collected, they wouldn’t be here for us to enjoy them now. There is an inherent conflict in this building, it reflects the inherent conflict between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal since they began arriving in our homelands.”

This collaboration with Stó:lō Nation tells the story of Stone T’xwelatse and his return home after 100 years. The exhibition focuses on two eras of transformation. Stó:lō Nation and the dance troupe Semoya made works about the distant past when supernatural beings turned people into elements of the landscape. Our works examined recent changes wrought by European colonization. Semá:th Lake Birds reflects the physical impact of the draining of the lake where T’xwelatse lived, once a destination for millions of migrating birds and spawning fish. You See Mt Cheam, Lhilheqey Looks Out Over Her People explores the imaginative transformations embodied in colonizing without regard for pre-existing names and stories of this ancient landscape. Storyboard For a Repatriation gives an account of the epic journey of Stone T’xwelátse.

see exhibition site >>

We did this project 20 years ago. The work is naïve and really rough in places but also in step with

The work was made in the mid-90s when the internet was in its infancy. We were off to Namibia to visit the Himba people and the prospect of travelling “back in time” led us to reflect on the present and ask ourselves: Who are WE? Meaning by “we” the rapidly growing number of us living with the material culture of the global supply chain: cars, phones, and TV screens.   

In the six months before we left home, we looked more carefully at ourselves and our fellow citizens in the suburbs and shopping malls of Canada. Family and friends tolerated David sticking his camera into unexpected parts of their lives. Before we flew away, we began compiling answers in the form of these word-and-photo poems. The question continued to pre-occupy us in Africa where, even in the most remote village, we found blowing garbage and a store selling Coca Cola.

Like many travelers, our culture shock was worse in reverse. Returning to the so-called land of wealth and freedom freaked us out. We finished the book in the six months after we returned to Calgary and put this mock-up together by hand in a friend’s studio from laser copies that were cut and glued to make the pages.

When Sandra pulled it out of a drawer 20 years later, we were struck by how its observations have grown more relevant in the intervening time.

These photographs follow television coverage of the 57th US presidential election. Ten days out, the Republicans were throwing Bengazhi around and the debates had Obama on the ropes. Then Hurricane Sandy hit New York and Romney landed on the wrong side of climate change. Red and blue slugged it out to the bitter end, but Romney went home defeated and Obama got his second term.

The Calgary Stampede is a place where myth, history, and spectacle collide. A century after it was dreamed up by a vaudeville cowboy from New York, the Stampede remains an unrivalled homage to the West. This series of photographs and the accompanying book go beyond the hype to probe the contradictions that lie at the heart of the greatest outdoor show on earth.