Spirit Maps presents a series of traditional loom beadwork tapestries in which Speplól Tanya Zilinski draws inspiration from both Western science and Indigenous ways of being and knowing to reflect on their own life as a component of a complex system, and on their identity as a product of complicated histories.
 

The exhibition begins with tapestries featuring geometric patterns inspired by chaos theory, a scientific framework that explores the underlying order and causal logic within chaotic systems. As the series unfolds, the artist departs from set designs to create improvised abstract landscapes whose colours and patterns they consider to be guided by spirit. These seemingly random compositions read like personal maps, each instinctively woven pattern signifying a formative experience or force that has shaped their life.
 

The abstract images in Spirit Maps are accompanied by a sculpture titled “We don’t need Your Constitution”, an assemblage of artifacts used in colonization, such as Hudson’s Bay blankets that were once traded by white settlers for Indigenous lands and the artist’s Red River Nation ID card which is a reminder of the racist laws that continue to govern Indigenous Peoples in Canada. This sculpture speaks to the devastating impact of colonialism.
 

Set beside this visual narrative of past and ongoing colonialism and epistemic violence, Zilinski’s defiantly personal spirit maps serve as a revolt against colonialism by resisting definition and simplification. As a final anticolonial gesture, Zilinski sews their traditional beadwork onto Melton wool, a quintessentially British fabric, transforming a symbol of empire into a site of Indigenous resistance and self-expression.