Jordan Bennett

Jordan Bennett (born 1986) is a multi-disciplinary artist of Mi'kmaq descent from Stephenville Crossing, Newfoundland, also known as Ktaqamkuk.

He is married to Métis visual artist Amy Malbeuf.

Bennett works predominantly with painting, silkscreening, sculpture, video, installation and sound.

2006–2009

Since 2008, Bennett has shown his work both nationally and internationally in over 75 exhibitions, notably Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, an exhibition co-curated by Kathleen Ritter and Tania Willard that toured nationally in Canada from 2012–2014.

Bennett earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook, Newfoundland in 2008.

jilaqami’g no’shoe, created in 2009, is a skateboard carved into a snowshoe, referencing Indigenous skater culture and traditional practices.

In another notable work, Turning Tables (2010), shown in the touring exhibition Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, is a handcrafted mixing table made out of various woods.

The record needle plays the sound of the tree's rights.

In this work Bennett asserts the continuation of Traditional Knowledge in a digital era.

Bennett's focus within his MFA looked at Mi’kmaq and Beothuk visual culture of Ktaqamkuk, which drew inspiration from the drawings of Shanawdithit, the last known living member of the Beothuk peoples.

He also participates in a collaboration with Amy Malbeuf under the moniker, Neon Kokhom, which is meant to "poke fun at indigenous stereotyping and its role in Canada's lucrative souvenir industry ".

This collaboration uses humour to address Indigenous misrepresentation

After completing a tattoo apprenticeship with Nlaka'pamux artist Dion Kaszas, Bennet, Métis visual artist Amy Malbeuf and Kaszas co-founded an Indigenous tattoo collective and residency called Earthline Tattoo, which focuses on the resurgence of Indigenous cultural tattoo practices in Canada.

He then went on to receive a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) Degree at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia in 2016.

The focus of Bennett's MFA was to "re-imagin[e] the traditional art forms of the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq into a contemporary art discourse. " Bennett was also a participant at the Earthline Tattoo Training Residency in 2016.

He is a member of the Qalipu First Nation.

Bennett's work tends towards interactive and multi-sensory as he incorporates multiple forms of media into his work to create immersive environments for the viewer.

These interactive works incorporate a broad range of materials.

Main sources of inspiration come from his interactions with Mi'kmaq and Beothuk porcupine quill designs, baskets, beadwork, clothing, and petroglyphs.

Bennett's work engages with themes of land, language, family history, and colonial misinterpretations of Indigenous history and stereotypes in Canada.

Bennett's artwork often references urban First Nations youth and culture.

In 2016, they conducted a training residency in which six Indigenous artists were invited to learn tattooing practices connected to Indigenous Traditions.

The residency was supported, in part, by the Initiative for Indigenous Futures and hosted by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, University of British Columbia Okanagan.

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