Upcoming
VITRINE: Wanisinowin | Lost
Wanisinowin | Lost
Meagan Byrne
15 June – 21 August 2018
Her first major work Wanisinowin | Lost, which has been shown at imagineNATIVE Film Festival, Toronto; Different Games Conference, New York; and IndieCade, California has been replicated here as a non-interactive installation piece. Wanisinowin|Lost is a letter of hope to the artist’s 10-year old self who struggled against lateral violence and the restrictive question of “Are you Native enough?” Here it has been transported back in time into the TV of that 10-year-old. And as she plays the game her future-self has made for her you are invited to watch as she struggles, along with the character Wani, to overcome the obstacles in front of her and complete the game.
Wanisinowin|Lost can be downloaded at: https://byrneout.itch.io/wanisinowin-lost
BIOGRAPHY
Meagan Byrne is a Métis (Swampy Cree/Newfoundlander) new media artist and game designer born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. She has been creating digital interactive works since 2014 and is heavily influenced by both traditional RPG video games and Woodland Style art as well as all the stories she heard growing up. Her designs incorporate narrative, game mechanics, sound and traditional art and are deeply rooted in indigenous futurisms, language and indigenous feminist theory. She sees her work as a constant struggle to navigate the complexities of indigenous identity within a deeply colonized system. Meagan uses her work to explore questions of cultural belonging, the indigenization of media and the future of indigenous language and culture.