Uploaded February 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Dana Claxton is a 2020 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Eric Pauls.
Co-production of the Canada Council for the Arts, Eric Pauls Productions and Six Two Six Productions. Presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit ggarts.ca
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Transcript:
[Background conversation]
My name is Dana Claxton and I’m a visual artist as well as a filmmaker, video artist, performance artist and professor.
I got an old Canon AE1 when I was sixteen and started taking photos.
I don’t know. My mother was a pretty cool woman. Both of my parents . . . my father liked photography.
You know when you’re young and people ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up?
And I specifically remember the moment. I was four or five years old and I said, ‘I want to be a filmmaker . . .
[ACTOR] The elders speak, for us to listen
. . . and I want to live in New York.’ So I did both of those things.
Art for a New Understanding, that's what Indigenous art is all about: art for a new understanding. If I want to say anything, that’s what it’s about.
Which one is that? You just never know what’s here . . . with all of the . . . oh, that’s beautiful.
Looking at the object, it allows the viewer to think about who they are in relation to what they’re looking at. So, certainly, contemporary Indigenous art and historical art has opened people up. And sometimes that openness can be kind of de-centering, because we have had a very dynamic history in Canada.
It’s interesting how many Indigenous artists I know who initially thought, ‘Oh god, I have to be a lawyer! Oh god, I have to be a social worker! Oh, I have to do something to look at these oppressive frameworks that [are] happening in Canada.’ You know, my mother never got to vote in her own country. In Quebec, Indian people couldn’t vote until 1970.
I mean, it’s slippery. There’s some slippery stuff going on here. And art, because it’s such a site of freedom, is able to question all this stuff.
The future is an interesting place. I always think that artists never retire. We keep making work. But I
know that sometimes I think I should just move over now for a while, but still, I have a zillion ideas. I’ll
just continue to make and I don’t know where it’s going.
But I have said all of this publicly anyhow, so this is what people expect from me. This is what I’m known for.
[DIRECTOR] Yeah, that’s true . . .
It’s what I’m known for, to speak my mind. Otherwise, what’s the point, if you can’t speak your mind?
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Dana Claxton is a 2020 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Eric Pauls.
Co-production of the Canada Council for the Arts, Eric Pauls Productions and Six Two Six Productions. Presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit ggarts.ca
****
Transcript:
[Background conversation]
My name is Dana Claxton and I’m a visual artist as well as a filmmaker, video artist, performance artist and professor.
I got an old Canon AE1 when I was sixteen and started taking photos.
I don’t know. My mother was a pretty cool woman. Both of my parents . . . my father liked photography.
You know when you’re young and people ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up?
And I specifically remember the moment. I was four or five years old and I said, ‘I want to be a filmmaker . . .
[ACTOR] The elders speak, for us to listen
. . . and I want to live in New York.’ So I did both of those things.
Art for a New Understanding, that's what Indigenous art is all about: art for a new understanding. If I want to say anything, that’s what it’s about.
Which one is that? You just never know what’s here . . . with all of the . . . oh, that’s beautiful.
Looking at the object, it allows the viewer to think about who they are in relation to what they’re looking at. So, certainly, contemporary Indigenous art and historical art has opened people up. And sometimes that openness can be kind of de-centering, because we have had a very dynamic history in Canada.
It’s interesting how many Indigenous artists I know who initially thought, ‘Oh god, I have to be a lawyer! Oh god, I have to be a social worker! Oh, I have to do something to look at these oppressive frameworks that [are] happening in Canada.’ You know, my mother never got to vote in her own country. In Quebec, Indian people couldn’t vote until 1970.
I mean, it’s slippery. There’s some slippery stuff going on here. And art, because it’s such a site of freedom, is able to question all this stuff.
The future is an interesting place. I always think that artists never retire. We keep making work. But I
know that sometimes I think I should just move over now for a while, but still, I have a zillion ideas. I’ll
just continue to make and I don’t know where it’s going.
But I have said all of this publicly anyhow, so this is what people expect from me. This is what I’m known for.
[DIRECTOR] Yeah, that’s true . . .
It’s what I’m known for, to speak my mind. Otherwise, what’s the point, if you can’t speak your mind?
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - instagram.com/canada.council
Facebook - facebook.com/canadacouncil
Twitter - twitter.com/CanadaCouncil
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - instagram.com/artbank_banquedart
Facebook - facebook.com/CCartbank
YouTube - youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - instagram.com/ccunesco
Twitter - twitter.com/CCUNESCO
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
