Fil conducteur celebrates the work of 5 contemporary Indigenous beadwork artists from across Turtle Island

Fil conducteur, an exhibition of contemporary Indigenous beadwork, is on view until May 23 at Concordia’s FOFA Gallery.

It’s a co-curation by former FOFA Gallery director Nicole Burisch and Nico Williams, a Bronfman Fellow and recipient of the 2024 Sobey Art Award. Williams says he is thrilled to be exhibiting his work alongside four “phenomenal artists”: Carrie Allison, Katherine Boyer, Bev Koski and Jean Marshall.

“Unwrapping each work was just breathtaking — unpacking each new sparkly creation!”

Dreaming in beads

This exhibition marks the culmination of Williams’s 2021 Claudine and Steven Bronfman Award that usually results in a solo retrospective. However, eager to reciprocate the many invitations he has received to join exhibitions across Turtle Island, Williams invited artists who have influenced or been in dialogue with his own practice over the years. 

“I remembered Nicole telling me ‘We can do anything,’” he recounts. “So, we pushed the limits, and there’s such a beautiful harmony in this, in all these wonderful, talented beadwork artists joining this exhibition.”

Notably, each of the five participating artists took part in the recent exhibition Radical Stitch — the largest contemporary beadwork exhibition to date.

“I've been dreaming of a bead show,” Burisch says. “I've been excited about beadwork ever since I saw the exhibition Beads, they’re sewn so tight, curated by Lisa Myers, at the Textile Museum.

“It was an eye-opening exhibition,” she notes. “I was like, holy smokes, people are doing such amazing work with this material.”

Williams was also greatly impacted by this exhibition. “It is such an honour to have Bev Koski participating in this show. I remember going to the Textile Museum and seeing the little swatches she had created. Those textiles inspired me.”

“I think we've both been dreaming of something like this for years,” Burisch adds. “It’s super exciting to get to work on it with Nico.”

A unifying thread

Roughly translated, Fil conducteur refers to a “conducting wire” — but it holds even further meaning for the co-curators.

“The nice thing about that term, in French, is it has this metaphorical sense too,” Burisch explains. “It references a narrative throughline, but it also connotes a spark of energy. I was thinking about the energy that flows through that thread, through the practices as well.”

“The thread represents something that holds the community together,” Williams shares. “And you don't want to have it break. We don’t put knots in the thread, because it’s holding all the beads together.”

This unifying thread is even more important in times of division, when exhibitions are being cancelled south of the border, as part of anti-DEI measures being enacted by the Trump government.

Koski is among the artists whose collaborations with Andil Gosine were to be exhibited at the Art Museum of the Americas this month. “Andil has been working on that for ages, for so long,” she laments. “It’s just really strange, it’s such a strange time.”

Williams is grateful for the ongoing and committed support of The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art, the FOFA Gallery and The Canada Council for the Arts — each ensuring that exhibitions like this continue to occur on unceded Indigenous territory. 

From the thread that connects to the tiny beads that are meticulously handled, this idea of care echoes through every aspect of the exhibition.

“I remember the level of care Bev showed the beads, as a material,” Williams recounts. “Carefully sorting the poor-quality Venetian glass beads and cleaning the perfect ones.”

“It’s frustrating picking up a bead that can cut your thread,” Koski laughs. “That’s why I did that.”

“But it was such a large number of beads,” Williams replies. “Like, the level of care…I love it.”

Greatest hits (so far)

This exhibition will have Williams well-surrounded by talented beadwork artists, but it is also an opportunity to showcase beadwork that is sentimental to him — his archive of found objects, of nostalgia, that he names his “gifts.”

“Often Nico’s work is a reproduction of an existing object,” Burisch notes. “The trompe-l’œil, the care, the quality and the attention to detail is so extraordinary. But the new thing that we’ve done here is that we’re exhibiting the beaded artworks alongside some of the real things.

“It is an opportunity to show that part of Nico’s practice that people don’t usually get to see — that he’s a total collector, with an eye for these things he’s finding and transforming.”

“You're going to have all the hits,” Williams says. “You're going to have the flannel. You’re going to have the danger tape. You're going to have the caution tape. You're going to have all the VHS video cases. It's all the original found archive — all the bingo sheets. It’s very colourful.”

Williams expressed his gratitude to Burisch for her hard work over the more than two years that have gone into planning the exhibit.

“We really have artists coming from all over — from the bush to the city,” he notes. “To see the things that they’re working on and presenting in a space like this, it’s very powerful. I hope it inspires future generations of beaders or people who are going to write about beads or people who are going to use them and make things.”
 

Fil conducteur runs from March 17 to May 23 at Concordia’s FOFA Gallery, 1515 Rue Sainte-Catherine (EV 1-715).