Artist takes work from Point Douglas to Buckingham Palace

Moral Injuries: The Art of Jordan Van Sewell
Airs on CBC Manitoba Saturday, Aug. 12, at 8p.m.

Stream free on Gem now.

An artful piece of Manitoba history once held an audience with the Queen.

Winnipeg artist Jordan Van Sewell's small ceramic sculpture of a York boat carrying a beaver, a polar bear, a buffaloand a Manitoba flagwas purchased by a former lieutenant-governor as a gift to Queen Elizabeth II.

"It's definitely identifiable as Manitoba made," Van Sewell says with a laugh. "But who knows where it ended up?"

Van Sewell's artand his Winnipeg rootsare the focus ofMoral Injuries: The Art of Jordan Van Sewell, anew CBCdocumentary for Absolutely Manitoba.

The hour-long doc traces Van Sewell'slife from when he was a young artist findinghis voice to the established senior artist he is today.

Jordanhas one of the best descriptions of Winnipeg I've ever heard.- Nicholas Treeshin, producer at Blackwatch Entertainment

Van Sewellopens up about ending his longtime residency at The Forks and the transition to a new phase of his artistic life.

The film is also a love letter to the city.

"Jordanhas one of the best descriptions of Winnipeg I've ever heard," says Nicholas Treeshin, a producer with Winnipeg's Blackwatch Entertainment whowrote, directed and produced the newfilm.

"Winnipeg is an anomaly in the middle of the prairie," Van Sewell says in the film. "To exist here is like being a pioneer. The eight months of winter that we get here is really a wonderful time to work on your craft, to hone your skills."

Van Sewell's ceramic works, which have sold for prices ranging from $60 to tens of thousands of dollars, feature colourful creatures, people, vehicles and buildings. They're part whimsy and part social commentary.

Moral Injury the title of one of his piecesas well as the documentaryis the latter. And Van Sewell ties it back to the city he calls home.

A moral injury is defined in medical terms as a psychological wound suffered by people faced with circumstances that can force them to go against their ethical code.

Van Sewell has a different, personal, definition: "A moral injury is something that erodes that rock-solid foundation that you have been building in life. It's like you're suddenly in this place where trust was eroded for you."

He views a moral injury as an act of injustice by a person or a system. And he's reminded of this injustice every time he steps out the doorand into his beloved neighbourhood of 35 years.

"[Point Douglas] has become a haven for me," Van Sewellsays. "But lately, it's becoming a statement of the disintegration of Winnipeg the homelessness and the drug problem."

Living without hope is the culmination of moral injuries, one on top of the other.- Jordan Van Sewell

He's clear on the fact that he doesn't have solutions for the issues Point Douglas and its residents face. But he feels that moral injuries are in part to blame and those suffering on the streets as a result are not.

"Living without hope is the culmination of moral injuries, one on top of the other," Van Sewell says.

Van Sewell attributes these moral injuries in part to colonizationand what he considers a failed democratic society.

But regardless of its challenges, Point Douglas is his cherished homeand much of his art is made there.

"I never get tired of sitting on my deck and looking at the skyline of Winnipeg and the Red River. It becomes deeply ingrained in who you are and what you are."

While Van Sewell has no expectations that art will solve the city's problems, he has hope that it will get some important conversations started.

"It's remedial, it's therapeutic, it's cathartic all those things that can result in a greater appreciation for everything around you," he says. "If it can turn grey days into heydays, then have at 'er. "

WatchMoral Injuries: The art of Jordan Van Sewellon Saturday, Aug. 12, at 8 p.m. on CBC Manitoba.

Stream freeon CBC Gem now.