STAGES Biennial 2023 




Nri* for Thought: Languages of Love Personified ; Geodesic, Bucky dome manufactured with wood recycled from 16th Century English barn (Waste Connections of Canada), burnt wood finsih with greenhouse polyethylene film 6mil
Nri* for Thought: Languages of Love Personified ; Geodesic, Bucky dome manufactured with wood recycled from 16th Century English barn (Waste Connections of Canada), burnt wood finsih with greenhouse polyethylene film 6mil


Stages Biennial invites artists from across North America to select and research sites in Winnipeg to activate, respond to, or consider as a point of departure. Maduka has lived in Treaty One Territory for eight years. For her first significant public art installation, she traced her way back to a phrase she used to describe her paintings: My paintings are love letters to my community. The hope for Nri* for Thought: Languages of Love Personified is to continue the conversation of deepening genuine solidarities between Newcomer Immigrant and Indigenous peoples in Treaty One. The goal was to activate space and imagination as a form of healing and resistance. The ethereal quality of the Geodesic dome’s form and spatial orientation symbolically communicated this aspect of dreaming. Nri* in the title translates to food in the central Igbo Language. Maduka, who is of Igbo descent and often visits her village, Ngene, in Awka South, when back in Nigeria, cannot communicate in her mother tongue. She jumped on a WhatsApp call with her mother, Amechi, who lives in Abuja, to clarify the dialect for which she can encapsulate the word food in the title of her work. This project consisted of a month-long workshop supervised by Emeka-Maduka in partnership with The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. For a month, she learnt alongside an Indigenous and a Newcomer Youth. They experienced a smudging ceremony led by Allison Cox (knowledge keeper, drum, and sound carrier), shared meals and laughs, told stories, and made art together. The session concluded with a trip to the Qaumajuq Centre. Both Youths were awarded funds to their RESPs from the production budget.

Geodesic dome proposal mock up by Bidemi Oloyede     Group photo at the youth workshop

 Film still from video presentation, shot and edited by Plueto3D model of geodesic dome by Imaobong Kennedy    Conceptual sketch of geodesic dome by Emeka Maduka       Ekene Emeka-Maduka, Conceptual sketch for video installation at Plug-In ICA Breezeway     
Film still from on-site Construction of dome by Ekene, Theo Sims, Juca, & Craig Love   Crops for the garden (Tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, cilantro, sage, and peppers) from Spence Neighbourhood Association, Winnipeg MB. photographed in the Plug-In Van  The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Qaumajuq Centre during workshop gallery excursion         in-progress documentation of the video installation structure by Ekene
The labours of love that this workshop coincided with were planting a vegetable garden of tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, cilantro, sage, and peppers, generously tended to by the Spence Neighborhood Association. The garden was open to all in proximity to stumble upon, take as needed, and consume. For the four-week duration of Stages, The Indigenous Friendship Centre at 45 Robbinson housed the geodesic dome. Following the Biennial, the centre accepted the gift of the dome and garden. This social sculpture counteracted contemporary consumerist culture, with colonial roots, to take more than we need. The aim was slowness and labour rooted in love and patience. While the garden remained exclusive to the community in the 45 Robinson area–to preserve the intent of the project–a video installation and AR presentation of the final project was showcased at Plug-In ICA. Maduka borrowed notions of sharing harvest as a way of life from pre-colonial representations of Nigeria by thinkers like Chinua Achebe. Access to food is a scarce necessity for the Global majority. However, through art-making, unsanctioned distribution can be imagined and activated. These are some of the dreamy qualities for art to create paths to social improvement and collective healing, personifying love.


Interior of Community GardenInterior of Community GardenVirtual Display Installation Exterior Shot of Geodesic Dome

Interior of Community GardenVirtual Presentation at Plug-In ICABTS of Geodesic Dome Build
Interior Shot of Geodesic dome


The six artists selected for the 2023 Stages Biennial were: Hangama Amiri (Kabul, Nova Scotia, Ontario, & New York),Ekene Emeke-Maduka (Nigeria, Manitoba), Marisa Gallemit (Ontario), Kosisochukwu Nnebe (Nigeria,Quebec), Lou Sheppard (Nova Scotia) and Paul Zacharias  (Manitoba). They represent an array of idiosyncratic practices with a nuanced attunement to the world today and its ever-refracting complexities. They work within, and around modalities that are steeped in social, theoretical, and aesthetic practices in equal measure.

This work was made with love and support from new friends and acquaintances with who closer relationships were forged. Special thanks to: Rachel Sansregret, Theo Sims, Craig Love, Juca, Stephen Kirk, Arlea Ashcroft, Desirae Phillips, Allison Cox, Dehab, Breanna,Mathew Joseph, Oluwanisola Iyaro, UrDaughter Toronto, Imaobong Kennedy,  and the village it took to build this community based project.