Double Gazebo by Native Art Department International

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Created by artist collective Native Art Department International (NADI), Double Gazebo (Markham) is a temporary public artwork newly commissioned by the City of Markham’s Public Art Program and presented in partnership with the Varley Art Gallery of Markham.

Now on view through November 28, 2021
Outdoor courtyard,
Varley Art Gallery of Markham
216 Main Street Unionville, Markham

In parallel with the physical installation, NADI has also programmed a series of online activations titled Walk East for Sun Rise Walk West for Sunset. These five-part activations —With ARs, With Artists, With Movement, With Sound, With Star Knowledge—will be launched here on the first day of each month from July through November.


Double Gazebo comprises two intersected structures modeled on a traditional gazebo, and is 11 feet in height. The installation offers partial shelter while simultaneously acting as a platform for shared experiences and an awareness that our bodies exist in and occupy space. It is important to note that the paired structures presented here are understood to be intersected, not combined or conjoined, which emphasizes the fact that one cannot alter or remove one part without destroying the other.


The artwork is intended to reflect broader debates regarding social spaces of exchange, interaction, and land use. Using social spaces as a point of departure, Double Gazebo expands on the concept by constructing something that operates both as inside and outside, to foster an interaction between the concept of space and occupation.


A gazebo can be considered a rather conservative structure, but it is a familiar type, prevalent in the community in which one variant of it is installed. Double Gazebo intentionally disregards colonial definitions of what Indigenous art and design elements should look like. Instead, it calls into question the concept of "categorized aesthetic" in terms of both expression and self-representation.


Double Gazebo has two variants: Double Gazebo (Markham) , commissioned by the City of Markham’s Public Art Program and located at the outdoor courtyard of the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, on view now through November 28, 2021, and Double Gazebo (MOCA) that will be on view indoor at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto as part of MOCA’s inaugural triennial survey exhibition, the Greater Toronto Art 2021, from September 29, 2021 through January 9, 2022.


Designed for and informed by Double Gazebo, the intention of Walk East for Sun Rise Walk West for Sunset is multifold. Its online format is to address the related issues of social distancing and public art at this special time. Practically and metaphorically, it is to build a conceptual common ground that connects the installation’s two variants hosted at two places: Double Gazebo (Markham) and Double Gazebo (MOCA). Conceived to activate various architectural potentials of the installation—an open-ended platform for observation, reflection, experimentation, and action—through the contributions by a network of local collaborators, the program highlights the mandate of NADI’s operation—kinship, relationality, and non-competition.


July 1st

With AR (Markham)

Supported by ar-works

[With AR (MOCA) will be launched on September 29, 2021]


August 1st

With Artists

By Maria Hupfield and Jason Lujan of NADI


September 1st

With Movement

By Deanne Hupfield, Pow Wow Dancer


October 1st

With Sound

By Mark V. Campbell/DJ Grumps


November 1st

With Star Knowledge

By Dr. Hilding Neilson, Astronomer


Video documentation of the program are made by Markham and Shanghai based artist Liang Yue.


Created by artist collective Native Art Department International (NADI), Double Gazebo (Markham) is a temporary public artwork newly commissioned by the City of Markham’s Public Art Program and presented in partnership with the Varley Art Gallery of Markham.

Now on view through November 28, 2021
Outdoor courtyard,
Varley Art Gallery of Markham
216 Main Street Unionville, Markham

In parallel with the physical installation, NADI has also programmed a series of online activations titled Walk East for Sun Rise Walk West for Sunset. These five-part activations —With ARs, With Artists, With Movement, With Sound, With Star Knowledge—will be launched here on the first day of each month from July through November.


Double Gazebo comprises two intersected structures modeled on a traditional gazebo, and is 11 feet in height. The installation offers partial shelter while simultaneously acting as a platform for shared experiences and an awareness that our bodies exist in and occupy space. It is important to note that the paired structures presented here are understood to be intersected, not combined or conjoined, which emphasizes the fact that one cannot alter or remove one part without destroying the other.


The artwork is intended to reflect broader debates regarding social spaces of exchange, interaction, and land use. Using social spaces as a point of departure, Double Gazebo expands on the concept by constructing something that operates both as inside and outside, to foster an interaction between the concept of space and occupation.


A gazebo can be considered a rather conservative structure, but it is a familiar type, prevalent in the community in which one variant of it is installed. Double Gazebo intentionally disregards colonial definitions of what Indigenous art and design elements should look like. Instead, it calls into question the concept of "categorized aesthetic" in terms of both expression and self-representation.


Double Gazebo has two variants: Double Gazebo (Markham) , commissioned by the City of Markham’s Public Art Program and located at the outdoor courtyard of the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, on view now through November 28, 2021, and Double Gazebo (MOCA) that will be on view indoor at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto as part of MOCA’s inaugural triennial survey exhibition, the Greater Toronto Art 2021, from September 29, 2021 through January 9, 2022.


Designed for and informed by Double Gazebo, the intention of Walk East for Sun Rise Walk West for Sunset is multifold. Its online format is to address the related issues of social distancing and public art at this special time. Practically and metaphorically, it is to build a conceptual common ground that connects the installation’s two variants hosted at two places: Double Gazebo (Markham) and Double Gazebo (MOCA). Conceived to activate various architectural potentials of the installation—an open-ended platform for observation, reflection, experimentation, and action—through the contributions by a network of local collaborators, the program highlights the mandate of NADI’s operation—kinship, relationality, and non-competition.


July 1st

With AR (Markham)

Supported by ar-works

[With AR (MOCA) will be launched on September 29, 2021]


August 1st

With Artists

By Maria Hupfield and Jason Lujan of NADI


September 1st

With Movement

By Deanne Hupfield, Pow Wow Dancer


October 1st

With Sound

By Mark V. Campbell/DJ Grumps


November 1st

With Star Knowledge

By Dr. Hilding Neilson, Astronomer


Video documentation of the program are made by Markham and Shanghai based artist Liang Yue.


  • With AR (Markham)

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    supporting image

    With AR (Markham) is a virtual supplement to Double Gazebo (Markham). Click HERE for the interactive experience. For mobile devices only.

  • With Artists

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    In With Artists, Maria and Jason of NADI, deploying reflective mylar, clear acetate, and spray paint, performed an unannounced action and had some fun with the Double Gazebo (Markham). A gesture that counters the expected making of site-specificity, a common idea prevalent in the field of public art, transforming the structure into a place with its own terms, in anticipating the installation’s next variant, Double Gazebo (MOCA). The resulting video in documentary style was ­filmed and edited by artist Liang Yue, with the assistance of Man Yi.



  • With Movement

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    In With Movement, fancy shawl dancer Deanne Hupfield shares pow wow dancing, a high intensity expressive art form rooted in Indigenous wellbeing. Hupfield says "dancing is a way to think about hard things in our lives, move through them, and feel better after." She wears a gold jingle dress, which she made at the start of the pandemic. Hupfield used the process of making the dress as a vehicle to manage mental stress and build inner strength after stepping up to care for her family of seven during the lockdown in downtown Toronto. The "WW" pattern on the dress serves as a reminder to be her own Wonder Woman. The sound made by the gold jingles matches her movements, to compliment the spirit of “Double Gazebo”, adding a rhythmic and embodied sonic element, and active visual presence. The resulting documentary-style performative dance for video was filmed and edited by artist Liang Yue, with the assistance of Man Yi.


    Deanne Hupfield is Anishnaabe from the Temagami First Nation in Ontario. A descendant of Indian Residential School survivors, she dedicates her life to learning about and preserving her culture. She started dancing at a young age and has spent her life passing on related teachings to her community. Hupfield has taught dance for the past 20 years, including weekend classes at The Native Canadian Center of Toronto. As an educator, she actively teaches the history of the Canadian policies that affect Indigenous people.



  • With AR (MOCA)

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    Coming soon. Launch on September 29, 2021.

  • With Sound

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    In With Sound, Mark V. Campbell/DJ Grumps created a seven-minute audio journey titled Relations, in which he puts to use a remix aesthetic to bring into conversation the dynamisms of three musical genres: soca, pow wow two step, and roots reggae. Moving between originals, remixes, samples, and original production, Grumps amplifies the relationality at the heart of Double Gazebo, signifying the power of sound to represent immaterial possibilities. This sonic exploration ruptures and relates categories, cultures, and differences as mediated through the technological possibilities of turntables and digital music making.

    As DJ Grumps, Mark V. Campbell spent the last two decades as a DJ and the past ten years as a Curator. His mixes and remixes ooze afrosonic life.


  • With Star Knowledge

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    In With Star Knowledge, the final episode of the series, Maria Hupfield and Jason Lujan, the artists behind NADI, undertook a conversation with astronomer Dr. Hilding Neilson. Unfolded under the moonlight on a beach by the water, the impromptu conversation takes our relationship with the moon and the stars in the sky its point of departure. Flowing from Indigenous knowledge to astronomy to the physics of the Universe, the conversation considers how we study the universe and how we are related to it, from bodily, intellectual, cultural, and philosophical perspectives. As the saying goes, every star tells a story.


    To read the conversation transcript, click HERE.


    Dr. Hilding Neilson is an interdisciplinary scientist, working on astrophysics and on the intersection of science, astronomy, and Indigenous knowledge. As a Mi’kmaw person, Neilson strives to embrace and integrate Indigenous knowledges and methodologies to better understand the physics of stars and the Universe and our place within it. More specifically, he probes the physics of stars. From the nuclear-burning core out to the circumstellar medium where stellar winds interact with the interstellar medium, Neilson seeks to understand connections between stars and planets; stars and cosmology; and stars and us. Neilson exploits theoretical and numerical tools, and compares these with observational data sets, to reveal the hidden physics of stars. He enjoys teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as participating in public outreach and science communication.



Page published: 11 Jul 2022, 05:07 PM