Edmonton, AB - FACE THE NATION, an original exhibition from the Art Gallery of Alberta, features eight Aboriginal artists from across Canada whose works address issues of history, representation and identity, and the important role that art and artists play in creating, reinforcing and also under-mining myths and stereotypes of people and cultures. This exhibition runs from June 21–September 21, 2008 and compliments the AGA’s current exhibitions RED TILE and DRAWN FROM THE PAST: The Portraits and Practice of Nicholas de Grandmaison.
In different ways, each of the artists in FACE THE NATION utilize strategies of imitation, parody and reference, and in many cases, their more performative enactments of masquerade and drag to critique the authority of history in both its documentary and artistic representations. The works in the exhibition rely on humour, irony and wit, to challenge every viewer to reconsider the face of history, and also to face new images and ideas of the nation.
Throughout his career, artist and curator Jeff Thomas has had a complex relationship with the work of photographer Edward Curtis; Thomas simulateously admires and is troubled by Curtis’ strategies of framing his subjects. To that end, Thomas is creating a special installation in FACE THE NATION, that incoporates Curtis’ Sioux Chiefs (1905) and Thomas’ own photography. Raising similar questions of how art can frame and inform identity and society, Terrance Houle’s Urban Indian Series features the artist donning his pow-wow dancer regalia and going about the daily life of a Calgary resident. Grocery shopping, taking the bus, and shopping at the mall, Houle juxtaposes the ceremonial aura of “real Indian” attire, with contemporary day-to-day settings, thereby exposing the messy means by which authenticity is granted.
KC Adams, Kent Monkman and Lori Blondeau in partnership with Adrian Stimson, address the history of romanticized portraits of First Nations peoples: Adams in her high-gloss portraits titled Cyborg Hybrids, Monkman in intimate and seemingly antique portraits of his alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, and Blondeau and Stimson in their respective adopted personas of Belle Sauvage and Buffalo Boy. Addressing famous depictions of the Canadian landscape, Maria Hupfield’s wall sized mural East Wind Brings a New Day re-creates Tom Thomson’s painting The West Wind. Hupfield then inserts her silhouette into this iconic landscape, thereby claiming a presence for women and the generations that came before and will come after. Lori Blondeau’s Lonely Surfer Squaw challenges the stereotypical view of Aboriginal women by posing as a pin-up girl, clad in a beaver-fur bikini and holding a giant pink surf board. Blondeau’s resistence to the traditionally generic representations of Aboriginal women calls upon her desire to expose traits of feminitiy, sexuality and power that have been rendered invisible for her gender and culture. And Dana Claxton’s new photo-based works take a fresh look at the horse, as an ostensible symbol related to mobility, trade, transition and resistence integral to First Nations culture during the expansion of the west, and reconfigures it in light of modern day society.
FACE THE NATION is curated by Catherine Crowston, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Art Gallery of Alberta. An exhibition catalogue, FACE THE NATION, is available starting June 21 from the Art Gallery of Alberta. Please see below for related programming. Exhibition images available for publication can be viewed in the media kit section.
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Related programming:
June 20, 7–9 pm: Opening reception, featuring performances by Freshly Squeezed
June 21, 1-4 pm: Face the Nation: A Round Table on Contemporary Aboriginal Aesthetics
Enterprise Square ATRIUM
Gerald McMaster (Chair) (artist and Curator of Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario)
Joe Baker (artist and Director of Community Engagement, Herberger College of the Arts, Phoenix)
Candice Hopkins (artist and Director / Curator Exhibitions Programme, Western Front Society, Vancouver)
Kent Monkman (artist, Toronto)
June 21, 1-4 pm: HSBC All Day Saturday
Edmonton artist Aaron Paquette leads a special drop-in workshop, on both Saturday and Sunday, focused on thinking personal identity and how you represent who you are.
Art Spies Scavenger Hunt through current exhibitions with a chance to win ‘fabulous’ prizes!
June 21, 9:45 pm: 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
At The Works Art & Design Festival Opening Party
(Opening Party starts at 8 pm)
Freemason's Hall, 10318-100 Avenue, Edmonton
Admission $14 advanced at TIX on the Square or $20 at the door
July 19, 1-4 pm : HSBC All Day Saturday
Urban-traditional poetry readings by Mother Peace
Dance performance by Tanya Lukin-Linklater
Special Aboriginal performances
Experience the traditions of Aboriginal dance, music and poetry in these special performances that layer time-honored customs and contemporary art-forms.
2 pm: Family Fun Tour of the exhibitions DRAWN FROM THE PAST: The Portraits & Practice of Nicholas de Grandmaison and FACE THE NATION
Media Contact
Sarah Hamilton
Media Relations + Communications Coordinator
Art Gallery of Alberta
t. 780.422.6223 x. 233 | e.
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