Face the Nation
June 21–September 21, 2008
New Portraits of the Past by Contemporary Aboriginal Artists
KC Adams
Lori Blondeau
Dana Claxton
Terrance Houle
Maria Hupfield
Kent Monkman
Adrian Stimson
Jeff Thomas
FACE THE NATION features the work of a selection of eight contemporary Aboriginal artists from across Canada. Their works address issues of history, representation and identity, and the important role that art plays in creating, reinforcing and also under-mining myths and stereotypes of people and cultures.
Jeff Thomas works with images of Aboriginal people, produced by 19th century artists and photographers such as Edward Curtis, Paul Kane, Cornelius Kreighoff, George Catlin, Edmund Morris and Geraldine Moody in the late 1800s, but also those images found in the contemporary urban fabric, as architectural ornaments, corporate logos and peripheral monuments. In a new installation created for the AGA, Thomas incorporates works from the Gallery’s collection into a conversation room, a space in which past and present meet.
Kent Monkman’s beautifully crafted paintings mimic traditional 19th century representations that depict the discovery of the virgin wilderness, yet undermine their colonial authority by inverting accepted power relations and inserting a new and often erotic content into their landscape. This issue of landscape, and the politics of its representation in the history of art in Canada, is taken up in Maria Hupfield’s large mural, The East Wing Brings a New Day, which is based on her re-interpretation of the empty Canadian landscape that was pictured by the Group of Seven in the early part of the 20th century.
KC Adams’ photographs, Cyborg Hybrids, are an on-going series of portraits of Euro-Aboriginal artists that seem to merge the 19th century image of the “noble savage” with the high-gloss finish of the fashion industry. While challenging our view of mixed race classifications, these works also inject the traditional iconography of the portrait with plugged-in state-of-the-art technology, deftly positioning the sitters in the present day. This attempt to integrate and also indicate the inconsistency between history, type and reality, is also seen in Terrance Houle’s staged public performances and photographs that insert the “traditional Indian”, in full headdress, bustle and loin cloth, into everyday urban life - grocery shopping, on the bus, at the mall.
Dana Claxton’s new photo-based works, The Mustang Series, are images of the post-modern Indian family, each with their latest model mustang: horses, cars, bikes and pony girls. The works are about the importance of mobility (both literally and culturally) and about survival through transformation and resistance.
In different ways, each of the artists in FACE THE NATION utilize strategies of imitation, mimicry and reference and, in many cases the more performative enactments of masquerade and camp, to critique the authority of history in both its documentary and artistic representations. In a new series of collaborative works, Lori Blondeau and Adrian Stimson assume the alter egos of Belle Savage and The Buffalo Boy respectively, to re-stage history and literally put the WILD back into the west.
The works in the exhibition are filled with humour, irony and wit, and challenge the viewer to face the nation.
Read about FACE THE NATION in the News
National Post
Dismantling the Shards of Past Identities, Leah Sandals (July 7, 2008)
Edmonton Journal
AGA Exhibit Confronts Aboriginal Stereotypes, Gilbert Bouchard (July 4, 2008)
Vue Weekly
Beyond Separation and Unity, The Simultaneous Nation at AGA, Mary Christa O'Keefe (July 3, 2008)
Exhibition Related Programming
Face the Nation: A Round Table on Contemporary Aboriginal Aesthetics
Saturday, June 21, 1–4 pm
aesthetic? Should there be? Can we define it? Who does it belong to?
This panel will address the obstacles raised by the canon of Western art history and its ethnographic understanding of aboriginal cultural production. By asking questions about the existence and specificity of a contemporary Aboriginal aesthetic, the speakers will address how Aboriginal artists today can create works that contribute to a discourse that is both inclusive and relevant to their cultures, identities and traditions but also addresses their desire to embrace (and be embraced by) the mainstream art world.
SPEAKERS
Gerald McMaster (Plains Cree and member of the Siksika Nation) is Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario. He brings a great wealth of knowledge, insight and experience to his position, drawing on his achievements both as a curator and as an artist. Dr. McMaster is recognized across North America as a leading authority on contemporary Aboriginal art, and received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2005 for his accomplishments. As Deputy Assistant Director for Cultural Resources at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian from 2000 to 2005, he was responsible for the design and content of three permanent exhibitions. Between 1981 and 2000, he was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and for the last five years he curated the First People's Hall. In 1995 he was appointed Canadian Commissioner to the Venice Biennale – the world's most prestigious art exhibition. McMaster holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam’s School for Cultural Analysis, an MA from Carleton University in Anthropology (with distinction), and a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Joe Baker (Delaware Tribe of Indians) is an accomplished painter, bead worker, curator and writer. As Lloyd Kiva New Curator of Fine Art at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, Baker worked hard to initiate and program contemporary aboriginal art as an ongoing feature of Heard Museum’s program. His reputation for generosity and community-mindedness is well deserved, being a founding board member of Roosevelt Row Downtown Development Corporation and the Indigenous Center for Creative Research. As an emerging artist he was once described as a “pop art oil painter of the "punk" West.” Recently, with Gerald McMaster, he curated a major exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal work at the National Museum of the American Indian entitled: remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World. Mr. Baker has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Tulsa and has completed post-graduate studies at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.
Candice Hopkins (Metis/Tlingit) is a curator and an artist. She has worked for a number of national and international Aboriginal organizations and was a Project Director on the development of a new Cultural and Interpretative Centre. She holds an MA in Curatorial Studies from Bard College, where she attended on a scholarship from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. As Aboriginal curatorial resident at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, she curated the exhibit: A Question of Place. Recently a group exhibit: Kits for an Encounter (co-curated with Marisa Jahn) at the Western Front Gallery profiles portable, off-site artwork that functions by setting up the conditions for various social encounters. An accompanying catalogue entitled: Recipes for an Encounter, will be published later in the year.
Kent Monkman (Cree) is a filmmaker, set designer and visual artist. Raised in Winnipeg, he is a member of the Fisher River Band in northern Manitoba and is of Swampy Cree and English/Irish descent. His formal art studies took place at Sheridan College, Oakville (1986), The Banff Centre (1992); Sundance Institute, Los Angeles (1998), and the Canadian Screen Training Institute (2001). He has exhibited extensively in venues including: Monte Clark Gallery (Vancouver), the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg, ON), Compton Verney (UK), Latitude 53 (Edmonton), the Woodland Cultural Centre (Brantford, ON), the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Art (Toronto), the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum London and many others. His award-winning short film and video works have been screened at various national and international festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Tickets$15 general / $8 AGA Members & Students
Free Admission for Curator’s Circle Members – please pre-register at 780.422.6223
PERFORMANCE
Terrance Houle with Lucid44 (Leslie Mark Overland)
I will see you...
A love story, a powwow story, told through video, live music and dancers
Saturday, June 21, 9:45 pm
at The Works Art & Design Festival Opening Party
(Opening Party starts at 8 pm)
Freemason's Hall, 10318-100 Avenue, Edmonton
