Introducing the innovative Transform / kwayshkoochinaakooshiw SS2024 collection, this design activates luxurious silk, end of stock, and eco-conscious up cycled materials. At its core lies a singular garment, seamlessly shapeshifting from pants to a shirt or dress, unveiling a remarkable repertoire of uncountable distinct looks. Through its reversible design, and adjustable panel, this visionary creation empowers wearers to engage in unparalleled creative experimentation, enabling endless personal styling possibilities. By honouring sustainability and adaptability, this collection revolutionizes the fashion landscape, setting new standards of versatility and conscious design. It's fusion of materials and transformative features represents a groundbreaking approach to fashion, inspiring individuals to embrace their unique style and a more sustainable and multifaceted wardrobe.
On Saturday, May 13, 2023, the internationally acclaimed Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) conference was held at the Royal Ontario Museum, coinciding with the release of the Transform fashion collection during their Gala Dinner.
In this video, you witness the extraordinary versatility of our reversible garment. With a simple transformation, it seamlessly transitions from a stylish shirt to a comfortable pant, showcasing the remarkable adaptability of this innovative design. By offering the functionality of both a pant and a shirt within a single garment, we redefine traditional fashion boundaries and provide wearers with the freedom to explore diverse looks and styles. This transformative feature not only enhances the practicality of the garment but also encourages creativity and experimentation, allowing individuals to curate their unique fashion statements. Experience the magic of this reversible garment as it effortlessly reinvents itself, offering you endless possibilities in one captivating piece.
Here we see the same garment worn as a dress with the panel unzipped to tuxedo in the back
Here we see the garment worn with the panel to the front and unzipped
Same garment worn as pant and top. The top is unzipped at the back half way to reference a bustle.
Here we see the garment worn as a dress with the panel worn to the front as a dress.
Here we see the garment worn as both pant and shirt in the same color accessorized with horsehair.
This printed transparent silk piece is now in the collection of the Chief Curator at the Textile Museum of Canada. A curated selection of Ayimach Horizons will go on sale at the Textile Museum of Canada soon.
Both of these pieces were created with up cycled materials.
The final bow of the Transform fashion collection garnered a resounding standing ovation from esteemed Global Indigenous Scholars.
F/W2023
Ayimach Horizons was thrilled to announce the presentation of their latest collection, Saskamowin / ᓴᐢᑲᒧᐃᐧᐣ Host, at Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, as part of the Indigenous Future program. On November 30, 2022, from 7 to 10 PM, Ayimach Horizons showcased their designs, which beautifully captured the essence of Indigenous Futurism. Saskamowin / ᓴᐢᑲᒧᐃᐧᐣ Host points to our role as past, present, and future custodians, emphasizing our responsibility to the lands and our relations. Through a harmonious blend of Indigenous artistic practice, contemporary storytelling, and pop culture, Ayimach Horizons invited us to envision a future honouring the Indigenous way of being, knowing, and stewardship. This collection embodied our collective commitment to forging a path celebrating our cultural heritage while embracing the limitless potential of Indigenous joy and resilience.
The Saskamowin / ᓴᐢᑲᒧᐃᐧᐣ Host Collection featured garments made from silk, cotton, and leather materials. Horsehair jewelry and bags served as captivating accessories. Notably, skirts were worn by individuals of all genders, adding a unique and empowering element to the collection.
Some of the garments included spray painted elements integrating some to the painting practices of our Creative Director, Jason Baerg.
ᐊᔨᒪ / Ayimach Horizons is a remix of cultural references and projects into spaces of Indigenous Futurisms as materials and pallets share a platform with traditional custom and aspirational visions of transformation. ᐊᔨᒪ Ayimach, in Nêhiyawêwin (Cree) translates to a fortunate change of events leading toward success. The Ayimach client is a community member who is generous in spirit and wants to share their shine; they see others glow and want to celebrate and bring joy into the circle. They performatively aim to animate space and activate energy with those they meet. The Ayimach client welcomes their power and is not afraid to be charismatic while actively responding to responsible inclusive futurities.
Ayimach Horizons is at the forefront of art and sustainable fashion innovation in production, presentation, and distribution. As a creative force, our Cree Métis Artistic Director Jason Baerg has been producing and presenting creatively for over 25 years, has worked, and exhibited in 10 different countries. His art practice (Art Directions Media Inc.) has been incorporated as a business since 2002. From a Cree Métis perspective, all products and presentations are informed culturally and reinforce an Indigenous value set that is centred in sustainable practices. Ethically sourced natural fibers such as cotton, silk, linen, leather, and horsehair are currently the core materials used to make garments.
ᐊᔨᒪ / Ayimach Horizons aims to work with sustainable products and to date works primarily with natural fibers. Silks, cottons, leather, and horsehair are key materials in the developing body of work.
Jason Baerg is an emerging 2 Spirit Cree Métis fashion designer who launched his first commercial capsule cruise collection with New York City based Fashion Art Gallery in 2018. In 2020 he released his first complete collection at Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto under his brand Ayimach Horizons. In 2022, Baerg opened Santa Fe’s Indian Market Fashion Show Gala and was reviewed by Dr. Jessica R. Metcalfe, one of the organizers and a recognized Indigenous fashion expert, wrote “Jason Baerg’s collection was a crowd favorite!!!” This community recognition meant as much to me as being highlighted in Vogue as being one of “15 Indigenous Artists to Know from This Year’s Santa Fe Indian Market”.
Our aesthetic and fashion profile are being validated and continues to be elevated in the museum context. Notable 2023 presentations of his work include, The Hamilton Art Gallery, The Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Gallery of Canada and the Santa Fe Indian Market.
Jason Baerg comes to fashion earnestly and it is something that has been a part of his creative process since childhood. Being a product of the 80’s, music videos, fashion, art, and architecture media informed his sensibilities. Baerg as a teenager was raised in a homophobic environment, which made it impossible for him to pursue his dream career in fashion. Baerg engaged in art education and has been actively producing and presenting outside of the academy since 1995. Fashion informed art production and now his art practice is informing his fashion pursuits. Much can be leveraged from 25+ years of international insights, teachings and the professional networks gained.
Raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Jason Baerg is now a registered member of the Métis Nations of Ontario. They serve their community as an Indigenous activist, curator, educator, and interdisciplinary artist. Select international solo exhibitions include Canada House in London, UK, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, and the Digital Dome at the Institute of the American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. As a 2 Spirit Cree Métis fashion designer, they launched their first commercial cruise capsule collection with the New York City-based Fashion Art Gallery in 2018.
Our operational story officially began in 2020 they released a complete collection at Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto under their brand Ayimach Horizons. In 2022, Baerg opened Santa Fe’s Indian Market Fashion Show Gala and was reviewed by Dr. Jessica R. Metcalfe, one of the organizers and a recognized Indigenous fashion expert, who wrote, “Jason Baerg’s collection was a crowd favourite!!!” This community recognition meant as much to me as being highlighted in Vogue as being one of the “15 Indigenous Artists to Know from This Year’s Santa Fe Indian Market”. In 2023, ELLE Magazine acknowledged Jason Baerg as one of “5 Indigenous Fashion Designers You Need to Know”.
In summary, Ayimach Horizons operates as a sustainable fashion brand with a business model that combines art and cultural references to create transformative fashion experiences. Led by Jason Baerg, a visionary Cree Métis Artistic Director, the brand offers a range of products priced between $200 and $5000. These products, crafted from ethically sourced natural fibers, embody Indigenous values and sustainable practices. Ayimach Horizons has gained recognition in museum contexts and is available for purchase through its Shopify and Instagram sites, as well as at selected retailers like Relative Arts in NYC. By leveraging collaborations and media exposure, the brand aims to increase its visibility and establish itself as a financially sustainable entity.
Why is your support right now important? Because we are in startup mode! There is demand for our product as well as interest in various ways to increase its visibility through celebrity styling and media exposure. The prestige of these collaborations serves to launch a business, yet Ayimach Horizons requires the support to safely build the brand to offer products that will sustain itself financially. We have an exciting team developing and news will launch soon about our capacities new offering. Please reach out if you would like to support us in anyway!
Graduate Certificate in New Digital Media, George Brown / Ryerson, Toronto, Canada
M.F.A. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Assistant Professor in Indigenous Practices in Contemporary Painting and Media Art at OCAD University, 2017-Present
Adjunct Instructor: Rutgers, Mason Gross School of the Arts, 2014-2016
Institute of American Indian Arts, 2016 - Fall Semester
Asaimîna ᐊᓴᐃᒼ ᐄᓇ All Over Again, 2020
Asaimîna ᐊᓴᐃᒼ ᐄᓇ All Over Again, (2020) is a generative new media projection piece that negotiates abstract spaces and places through a multiplicity of circular notions to contemplate direction. Sensing, intuiting, or knowing comes from understanding and are dynamic concepts that describe the continuum of a sequence of embodied experiences. Asaimîna ᐊᓴᐃᒼ ᐄᓇ All Over Again activates the local and cosmological to serve as a digital compass for our future.
The reward for interactivity is that abstractions appear. Abstractions are landscape inspired which also include Cree syllabics that also reference place. Audio interactivity triggers changes in the soundscape as the participant moves the cursor with the rolly ball to the north, where the sound of the wind occurs. If the cursor is moved to the south, the sounds of waves break. If you move the cursor to the East where the sun rises, crackles of fire are summoned and if the cursor is moved to the west, sounds of tectonic plates rumble.
The central orb is comprised of four stacked transparent video channels, which are composites produced by the animated outcomes of experiments made by feeding images in AI software of Indigenous trees to the local area in Tkaronto, representing the dense forest that once lived here, with current images of this city.
Oskâyi Askîy Series
ᐅᐢᑳᔨ ᐊᐢᑮᕀ
Pronounced Oskâyi Askîy, which means The New World in Cree, Installation @ Mason Gross Galleries, 2016
The current developing body of work, Oskâyi Askîy explores themes of human survivance, engaged by Anishinaabe cultural theorist Gerald Vizenor as he writes about "the enunciations of dominance, tragedy and victimry." Oskâyi Askîy carries survivance into reflective spaces of activation, as we now witness international artistic trends engulfing the apocalyptic as illustrated in numerous symposiums, including the 2015 Art+Climate = Change Festival, which occurred in Melbourne, Australia, highlighting the works of artists and scholars from around the world.
Click above to get a sense of the new media component.
Laser cutting is a means to extend a new sculptural element into the work. I first engaged this process in 2012 while on residency at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Oyasiwewina, which means, The Law in Cree
204"x60" Acrylic and Tempera on Laser Cut Canvas over 12' x 8' Ladder, 2016
In Art in The Age of Asymmetry, Timothy Morton proposes, "that we have entered a new era of aesthetics, shaped by the current ecological emergency."
Oskâyi Askîy is an abstract body of work that considers a disconnected rapport with the environment as a result of misdirected human desire. The Sky, Animals and Land are processed through technology and are translated as flesh, fauna and playful apparatus. As a working artistic practice based methodology, this process acts as an exploratory space to consider future solutions to the calamity at hand.
Onôcihitowipîsim, which is Cree for: September, The Mating Moon
48"x48", Acrylic, Tempera and Oil on Laser Cut Canvas, 2016
Detail
ᐸᑯᐦᒉᓀᐤ
Pronounced Pakohcenew, which means, S/he Removes its Intestines in Cree
8’x5', Acrylic, Tempera and Oil on Laser Cut Canvas, 2016
Other laser cut work within the Oskâyi Askîy Series
Gallery Omar Alonso, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 2017
Gallery Omar Alonso, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 2017
Gallery Omar Alonso, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 2017
New Pangea, 2'x3', laser cut canvas, 2015
Install at Durham Art Gallery
2'x3', Laser Cut Vinyl, 2015
Anthropocene, 2'x3', Laser Cut Paper, 2015
10,000 Sea Lions I, 2'x3', 2015
10,000 Sea Lions II, 2'x3', 2015
The Great Chief Star
Click above for documentation of experimental generative media
performance
The Great Chief Star, a mission to heal water, commissioned for the Pan Am Path, 2015
The Great Chief Star, is an original 45 minute multi-media sunset performative presentation. Cree Cosmology is the central point of investigation in this new work. Cree Métis artist, Jason Baerg takes us on a journey in the four directions around the Earth, past the Moon, beyond Morning Star (Venus) and the Sun, to Kisci-Okima-Achak (The Great Chief Star). DJ, Michael Red enhances the experience as he composes an original music score. New masterworks are created by international acclaimed Mohawk choreographer and dancer, Santee Smith alongside Inuk contemporary performance artist Tanya Tagaq, who will co-pilot this flight with her unconventional approach to Throat Singing. Jason Baerg creates digital abstractions to punctuate this new media voyage, which will be projected behind the performers. The new media in collaboration with JS Gauriter serves to punctuate the dance gestures of Santee Smith and the vocal dynamics of Tanya Tagaq utilizing Xbox Kinect technologies.
Blue Vision Collaboration
"Blue Vision" Installation at Counihan Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, Mixed Media Sculpture, 2015, in collaboration with Jen Rae (Metis) and Peter Waples-Crowe (Ngarigo).
Trophies of War
Artists practice visioning and when we (Jen Rae, Peter Waples-Crowe and Jason Baerg) actively imagine the future, we consider how art serves as a mechanism to find language to trigger change. When we contemplate the fate of Indigenous Culture, we welcome this opportunity to transgress loss through acts of reclamation. These actions are taken with intention, through the weaving of abstraction, through figuration, through fictional narrative and nonlinear means of storytelling in the form of a collaborative installation. Our totems are used as vehicles for telling, revealing and projecting empowerment.
Raven, Dingo and Wolf
Blue Vision, Mixed Media Installation, Various Sizes, 2015
Nomadic Bounce Series "Four Legged", Nomadic Bounce, Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery, Sarnia, Ontario, 2015
Various: Site Specific Installation
Acrylic on Laser Cut Wood, Elastic Bands, Industrial Nails / Video
Acrylic on Laser Cut Wood, Elastic Bands, Industrial Nails
"This Train is Empty", Nomadic Bounce, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Various: Site Specific Installation Acrylic on Laser Cut Wood, Elastic Bands, Industrial Nails / Video, 2013
This is an image of a collaborative new media performance with Adrian Stimson, and JS Gautier. Above we are constructing a constructed sculptural element to activate the depth sensitive projections used in the performance.
This is another image of the collaborative new media performance with Adrian Stimson, and JS Gautier. Here we use a constructed sculptural element to activate the depth sensitive projections used in the performance.
Click above for immersive projections / generative interactive digital media
There Was No End -- Artist Jason Baerg (Cree Métis) utilizes significant symbolic Indigenous numeric values to inform narrative, color and repetition in reference to circular notions of time.
The 360° spherical display of 360 abstracted symbols of the Sun the Moon and the Earth appear in sequences of 13 to reference many Indigenous communities' 13-moon calendar. There Was No End utilizes ground-breaking research and development in the integration sensors and interactivity presented in the world's first fully articulated digital dome.
Graduate Certificate in New Digital Media, George Brown / Ryerson, Toronto, Canada
M.F.A. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Adjunct Instructor:
Rutgers, Mason Gross School of the Arts, 2014-2016
Institute of American Indian Arts, 2016 - present
I have been doing graphic design work for the Centre for Indigenous Theater since 2007.
The poster above is a design option for the 2016 Final Graduate Performance.
This 2016 design is an option for the accompanying promotional post cards.
This poster was designed for the 2016 Rutgers M.F.A. Graduate Exhibition.
I am currently working on a new digital dome piece at the Institute of American Indian Arts, while on residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute. The new dome piece is slated to be presented in 2017. The new piece will leverage aspects of the Great Chief Star, performed by Santee Smith in real time for a live audience. There will also be a HD capturing her performance, so that a cinematic version can circulate to various Digital Dome venues internationally.
The Great Chief Star
The Great Chief Star, a mission to heal water, commissioned for the Pan Am Path, 2015
The Great Chief Star, is an original 45 minute multi-media performative presentation. Cree Cosmology is the central point of investigation in this new work. Cree Métis artist, Jason Baerg takes us on a journey in the four directions around the Earth, past the Moon, beyond Morning Star (Venus) and the Sun, to Kisci-Okima-Achak (The Great Chief Star). DJ, Michael Red enhances the experience as he composes an original music score. New masterworks are created by international acclaimed Mohawk choreographer and dancer, Santee Smith alongside Inuk contemporary performance artist Tanya Tag, who co-pilots this flight with her unconventional approach to Throat Singing. Jason Baerg creates digital abstractions to punctuate this new media voyage, which are projected behind the performers. The interactive new media projections are produced in collaboration with JS Gauriter and serves to punctuate the dance gestures of Santee Smith and the vocal dynamics of Tanya Tagaq utilizing Xbox Kinect technologies in real time.
Extended Media
Oskâyi Askîy, 2016
As part of a developing body of work, Oskâyi Askîy, is slated for exhibitions into 2017
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Below are digital abstractions to be utilized in a randomized software patch intended for a immersive projection installation, ᐅᐢᑳᔨᐊᐢᑮᕀ (Pronounced Oskâyi Askîy, which means The New World in Cree), a work that is currently being produced at the Santa Fe Art Institute. To be presented in 2016 / 2017 in exhibitions in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
One of 360 digital abstractions forᐅᐢᑳᔨ ᐊᐢᑮᕀ (pronounced Oskâyi Askîy, which means The New World in Cree)
One of 360 digital abstractions forᐅᐢᑳᔨ ᐊᐢᑮᕀ (pronounced Oskâyi Askîy, which means The New World in Cree)
One of 360 digital abstractions forᐅᐢᑳᔨ ᐊᐢᑮᕀ (pronounced Oskâyi Askîy, which means The New World in Cree)
One of 360 digital abstractions forᐅᐢᑳᔨ ᐊᐢᑮᕀ (pronounced Oskâyi Askîy, which means The New World in Cree)
One of 360 digital abstractions forᐅᐢᑳᔨ ᐊᐢᑮᕀ (pronounced Oskâyi Askîy, which means The New World in Cree) >><<
there was no end
Immersive Randomized Interactive Digital Media
there was no end utilizes significant symbolic Indigenous numeric values to inform narrative, color and repetition and references Indigenous notions of circular time.
The 360° spherical display of 360 abstracted symbols of the Sun the Moon and the Earth appear in sequences of 13 to reference many Indigenous communities' 13-moon calendar.
there was no end utilizes ground-breaking research and development in the integration of motion sensors to trigger interactivity in the world's first fully articulated digital dome.
Presented at:
• The 18th International Symposium on Electronic Art in Santa Fe, the Digital Dome at the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2012 and the first interactive piece for the IAIA Digital Dome.
•The IMERSA Summit 2013, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, Colorado.
CIT Poster Design 2015
CIT Poster Design 2014
CIT Poster Design 2013
I designed the cover of this zine for Kimiwan (which means Rain in Cree) in 2013.
Kimiwan is an Indigenous Arts publication. I drew inspiration by the housing crisis in Attawapiskat First Nation, while Debeers was concurrently extracting some of the hardest clearest diamonds in the world out of their traditional territories.
Kisik Acimowina (translated most often as Sky Story in Cree)
Kisik Acimowina is an experimental collaborative multimedia piece created by New Media Artists Jason Baerg, Carrie Gates and Music Composer, Michael Red. The work explores a time-collapsing journey in our land, from the perspective of a single traveller inside an ever-evolving land and skyscape.
It world premiered at "The Wrong" New Digital Art
Biennale initiated from São Paulo, Brasil and curated within the Anthony
Antonellis pavilion, which opened on Nov. 1, 2013.
Nomadic Bounce Performance
Utilizing Xbox kinect technology and video mapping software
Jason Baerg, Adrian Stimson and Jean-Sebastien Gauthier used experimental performative
drawing techniques to erase videos of the present to reveal the past and erase the past to reveal the future in a
public performance.
The Plain Truth, Commission for the Virtual Museum of Canada, 2008
The Plain Truth was inspired from an airplane passenger's window view of the Great Plains of North America by Jason Baerg. The Plain Truth: RYBW installation was designed by the artist to encourage a sense of engagement, reflection and empowered visioning.
Youth Mentored Visual Support
Pricelys - Nomadic Bounce
I am grateful and proud to have shared amazing exchanges with Indigenous Youth from around the world. Zoey Roy is one that I am most humbly grateful to have mentored over the years. This Cree Metis M.C and activist has taken inspiration in the creation of this song and video from one of my artist talks at the University of Saskatchewan about the Nomadic Bounce installation that toured Canada. In 2016, Zoey won the transformational Inspired Youth Award and continues to encourage empowerment to Indigenous Youth in meaningful ways. It was an honor to provide her with letter of support for this prestigious national award.
Dan Guinta - Color and the Senses
I really enjoyed teaching at Rutgers University! This work was created by one of my many gifted Visual Thinking Color students. This work was so impactful, that I later co-curated (with Basia Goszczynska) it into the 2015 Expanding Wilderness exhibition at the Mason Gross Galleries.
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