Rebecca Belmore is a contemporary performance artist who is less in the visceral and puts much emphasis on poetry. Her exhibition, “Facing the Monumental”, curated at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), promotes the idea that her work has always been open-ended and non-pedantic.
Belmore’s work explores a range of topics like violence against indigenous communities, poverty, struggles of the human spirit, and the cultural importance of water. The exhibition entails photographs, videos, and sculptures to perpetuate these themes. She prompts the audience to confront Canadian colonialism by combining a mood of social activism with her sensibility. Belmore tries to reevaluate the entire Canadian history and turn people’s attention toward the inner cities where Native oppression is dominant. For instance, the exhibit entails a video called “The Name and Unnamed”, a 2002 presentation by Belmore. In this presentation, Belmore appears in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which is an infamous neighborhood known for the murder of many indigenous women[1]. She kneels before sweeping the concrete using a broom. Afterward, she scrubs the concrete clean, as if she were to wash away the blood of the murder victims. Belmore arises and focuses her attention to the onlookers before she starts shouting out the names of women who died. It is easily noticeable from her voice that she is filled with pain and rage which was a consequence of the many years of bloody colonial conquest. She bites the flowers and gazes at the lit candles, which probably represents her hope.
In another piece of work known as “Sister”, Belmore presents a photograph of a woman who is in denim jackets and jeans. The female on the photograph has her arms spread wide and only her back faces the camera. When asked in an interview, Belmore explains that this piece of art was meant for the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver. The artist states that she knew there was an annual women’s march and knew that women would walk past ‘Sister’[2]. Rebecca’s presence is significant and intense which reveals itself in the art with a woman who has her arms out ready to fly.
“Facing the Monumental” portrays the breadth of the artist’s interest. She displays a pair of new pieces, Tower and Tarpaulin. The former is a stack of carts with 20 feet height supported by a clay column. On the other hand, Tarpaulin is a ragged canvas which appears to be in a kneeling position. The two items were made after Belmore’s return to Vancouver. The motivation behind the construction of these items was to present the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor. Besides, it also symbolizes the homelessness crisis and the new pieces accomplish the purpose both as tribute and complaint. The stack of shopping carts serves as the home for the homeless which is a prestigious possession.
Belmore depicts the controversy in focusing on indigenous contemporary art. A good number of people believe that Indigenous artists solely speak about themes that relate to their livelihood even though most of these issues are universal. Through the use of art, the artist attacks the violence led toward Indigenous communities started by Canadian colonialism. Equally, her open-ended art depicts the Native oppression which is still prominent in the cities and how painful the loss of indigenous women was to communities and the entire world.
Bibliography
Balzer, Samantha. 2014. "Beginning with the Body: Fleshy Politics in the Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha." Journal of Feminist Scholarship 6 (1).
Nanibush, Wanda. 2014. "An interview with Rebecca Belmore." Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3 (1): 213-217. https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/download/21311/17377/.
[1] Balzer, Samantha. 2014. "Beginning with the Body: Fleshy Politics in the Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha." Journal of Feminist Scholarship 6 (1).
[2]
Nanibush, Wanda. 2014. "An interview with Rebecca Belmore." Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3 (1): 213-217.
