Jake Kimble: Treatment

Treatment marks Chipewyan (Dënesųłıné) artist Jake Kimble’s second solo exhibition at United Contemporary. In this newest body of photographic work, Kimble continues their exploration of self-care, self-repair, and the complicated ways we give and receive care, while expanding the possibilities of what it means to be “treated.”

Drawing on imagery associated with personal ceremony, rehabilitation, beauty and wellness, Kimble moves between sincerity, humour, vulnerability, and performance. The works consider the many forms treatment can take, from a spa treatment to rehabilitation, from personal rituals of repair to the treatment of a photograph itself. Photography becomes both subject and material, a space where images can be manipulated, transformed, repaired, and reimagined.

At the heart of the exhibition is the ambiguity of the word treatment. It can describe an act of kindness or care, while also referring to harm, discipline, intervention, or the ways in which we have been treated by others. In this newest body of work, the artist considers the give and take of care: how we care for ourselves, how we are cared for, and how brutal or kind we can be toward ourselves in return.

For Kimble, this tension is deeply personal and extends beyond the individual body. Treatment considers the treatment and conditions of Indigenous bodies, and the histories and systems that have shaped their relationship to land, ownership, and sovereignty. Treaties become part of this broader inquiry: agreements that speak to relationships between peoples and land, and the complex realities of how those relationships have been enacted, interpreted, and upheld. In this way, Kimble moves between the intimate experience of the body and larger questions surrounding the treatment of Indigenous peoples and territories, creating connections between personal histories and collective ones.