The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver has launched "Photolithics," a major exhibition by Secwépemc and Scottish-settler artist Tania Willard. The show features a decade of Willard’s work, including monumental recreations of historical postcards on sandpaper and photographs viewed through ulexite crystals. The exhibition utilizes innovative installation techniques, such as a traditional kekuli structure, to recontextualize archival imagery and explore the intersection of geological time and Indigenous history.
This exhibition is significant as it highlights the work of the 2025 Sobey Art Award recipient, one of Canada’s most prestigious contemporary art honors. Willard’s practice directly challenges the colonial legacy of photography, which has historically been used as a tool of surveillance and "salvage anthropology" against Indigenous peoples. By deconstructing these images through land-based materials like stone and garnet, Willard asserts Indigenous sovereignty and offers a methodology for decolonizing the lens.