Elias Burns-McKay on being a social and political justice artist
Dual artist Elias Burns-McKay is a fourth year bachelor of fine arts student at the University of Regina (UofR). Recently, he has started to dabble in photography and oil painting, but creating art was a constant in his childhood. Themes surrounding intergenerational trauma and the queer and trans identity are present in his works which have been featured at the Art Mûr in Montreal and UofR’s Fifth Parallel Gallery.
Inspiration behind the art
Burns-McKay is originally from James Smith Cree Nation and grew up in Peepeekisis Cree Nation. Identifying himself as a political artist, he confronts issues of suicide and murder in the Indigenous community. “I lost two of my close friends over the last year to suicide,” he shared. “I’m always trying to create a conservation about that, especially the suicide epidemics up in the North and the Inuit who have very high rates of suicide among Indigenous people.”
Burns-McKay said that he was greatly affected by the passing of his loved ones and began to understand the gravity of the suicide epidemic. Taking this realization, he began to paint self-portraits to talk about his feelings of suicidality.
Elias Burns-McKay. ceremony…ᐊᑯᑎᑐᐃᐧᐣ. Canvas print, oil paint, and acrylic marker, from 35mm film photograph, 20×16 in.
In July of this year, Art Mûr had selected three of his paintings for their group exhibition entitled Fresh Paint / New Construction, which ran until the end of August. As a trans man, Burns-McKay’s work also tackles the high rates of suicide in the trans community. He described seeing a post on social media about a trans man who died by suicide seen wrapped in the trans flag. This inspired one of the paintings in the group exhibition.
“I remember being suicidal […] and thinking about self-immolation as an act of protest,” he stated. “I ended up making this six foot painting of me wrapped in a trans flag on fire in front of the Legislative building.”
If you’re standing in solidarity with a marginalized group, you can’t pity them.” -Elias Burns-McKay
Exhibition at the Fifth Parallel Gallery
From Nov. 21 to Dec. 5, a series of Burns-McKay’s work was among those featured at the Fifth Parallel Gallery’s group exhibition, Field Work: Making Photographs. He explained that there were eight pieces in this series, four of which were photographs that were taken on film. They were enlarged, printed onto a canvas, and painted over.
The message behind
Burns-McKay says he is aware of having both an Indigenous and non-Indigenous audience. He urges the latter and his white audience to confront their guilt and fragility when viewing his work. He recalls an individual crying over a series of his photographs as he discussed the issues from his father’s experience at a residential school and the death of his friends. “It was obvious it was pity rather than anything […] and if you’re standing in solidarity with a marginalized group, you can’t pity them,” proclaimed Burns-McKay. “When white people start to realize that they’re falling back into white fragility, it shatters this belief that they’re allies.”
I decided the only time I’ll ever make work about [it] is when all of the families are as healed as they can be, and that’s probably not going to be in my lifetime.” -Elias Burns-McKay
As a political artist, Burns-McKay finds himself grappling with the thought of exploitation when it comes to retelling stories of himself and his community. In Sept. 2022, a mass stabbing in James Smith Cree Nation took place and eleven people were killed. Burns-McKay shared that there is pressure and expectations for him to make work about this. “I was speaking with somebody from my reserve, and he said […] out of the eleven families that were directly affected, only three of them go to support groups,” he recalled. “I decided the only time I’ll ever make work about [it] is when all of the families are as healed as they can be, and that’s probably not going to be in my lifetime.”
Working with heavy themes in his craft isn’t always easy, but Burns-McKay finds it to be essential in his healing. ‘’I deal with things in life visually […] I suppose these works are just for me to really get out these complicated things that are floating in my head and in my heart,’’ he expressed.
Currently, he is working on a very personal piece that tells the story of living with PTSD. He plans to take another year at the UofR to continue his studies. A goal of Burns-McKay’s is to make his art accessible and to host a workshop for his community back in the reserve. “I want to give them an opportunity to make their own art, and if they care to look at my work at the same time, then great!”
