For Rhayne Vermette, filmmaking is like building a house with images

Rhayne Vermette fell in love with making images and telling stories while studying architecture in university. 

It's fitting then that the Métis artist constructs her work like a building. Primarily known as a filmmaker, Vermette finds harmony and contrast in a collage of styles and materials, including fiction, animation, documentary, re-enactment and experimental cinema.  

In 2021, her debut feature film Ste. Anne won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Now, the Winnipeg-based artist competes for the $100,000 Sobey Art Award — Canada's richest art prize — as the short list nominee selected to represent the Prairies.

Six finalists from across Canada will contend for the Sobey Art Award this fall. To get to know them, CBC Arts sent each artist a questionnaire. Read on to learn about the art experience that had the biggest impact on Vermette this past year and why the root of the word "animate" is very important to her work. Plus, she told us what she's presenting at the Sobey Art Award exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. 

The winner of the 2024 Sobey Art Award will be announced on Nov. 9. You can find all of our 2024 Sobey Art Award coverage here. 

When did you know you'd be an artist?

I likely always knew this. My feelings were profoundly affirmed sometime around 2013, when I completed the film Black Rectangle. It's a work that felt like [it was] from someplace I knew, outside of me.

What does art allow you to do? 

Manifest.

Is there a question, inquiry or investigation central to your art practice? What is it? 

My work is all about ways of seeing and conversations with the incorporeal.

Why do you practice the disciplines you do? 

My discipline is primarily concerned with the nature of images and working with light. I started out as an animator and am mindful that the word "animate" puts forth the word "anima," which means spirit. Through films, photography and collage, I sort of build with images in considering their connections to light and spirit.

How does place influence your art? 

Notions surrounding the home have always grounded most of my works. I like to think about the house of cinema, and what she is made of. The beauty of the Prairie landscape and my love for Manitoba is what has motivated my feature length films. 

To work best, what do you absolutely need? 

Music.

What was the most impactful work of art — in any medium — you experienced this past year? 

The [Sun Ra] Arkestra live in Winnipeg just before the 2023 summer solstice. It was powerful because it felt like ceremony for the city of Winnipeg. 

If you weren't an artist, what would you like to do for work?

Teach.

Can you tell us about the artwork you're showing at the National Gallery of Canada for the Sobey Art Award exhibition? 

The works in the show represent a line that passes across my cinematic universe, highlighting personal image genealogies through film props, photographs, collages and moving images. 

A small cluster of photographs speak to my dad, who taught me how to take a photograph. It features an empty lot near Ste. Anne (a prop from my 2021 feature film). 

Across the way, an Imax collage portrays a self-portrait intricately formed from small pieces of 16-millimetre found footage. 

The central work, a 16 mm loop [showing a segment from Ste. Anne], is a mirror — a moving reflection to a house burning to the ground. My father makes a pilgrimage across familial land, witnessing a miracle amongst the rocks. 

How does it exemplify your practice? 

It's my darkroom. 

The winner of the 2024 Sobey Art Award will be announced on Nov. 9 in Ottawa. The Sobey Art Award exhibition continues at the National Gallery of Canada through April 6, 2025.