Reading the Talk
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RTT FINAL with Spine_Layout 1 14-09-07 9:11 PM Page 2 MICHAEL BELMORE HANNAH CLAUS PATRICIA DEADMAN READI NG THETALK VANESSA DION FLETCHER KEESIC DOUGLAS MELISSA GENERAL READ I NGTHETALK MICHAEL BELMORE HANNAH CLAUS PATRICIA DEADMAN C U R AT E D B Y RACHELLE DICKENSON + L I S A M Y E R S VANESSA DION FLETCHER KEESIC DOUGLAS MELISSA GENERAL READ I NG THETALK THE ROBERT McLAUGHLIN GALLERY, OSHAWA MUSEUM LONDON, LONDON ART GALLERY OF PETERBOROUGH, PETERBOROUGH MACLAREN ART CENTRE, BARRIE READING THE TALK: MICHAEL BELMORE, HANNAH CLAUS, PATRICIA DEADMAN, VANESSA DION FLETCHER, KEESIC DOUGLAS, MELISSA GENERAL © 2014 THE ROBERT McLAUGHLIN GALLERY CONTENTS 72 Queen Street, Civic Centre Oshawa, ON L1H 3Z3 www.rmg.on.ca MUSEUM LONDON 421 Ridout Street North London, ON N6A 5H4 www.museumlondon.ca ART GALLERY OF PETERBOROUGH 250 Crescent Street Peterborough, ON K9J 2G1 www.agp.on.ca MACLAREN ART CENTRE 37 Mulcaster Street Barrie, ON L4M 3M2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8 www.maclarenart.com GABRIELLE PEACOCK, BRIAN MEEHAN GRAPHIC DESIGN: Rob Gray, DesignWorks Studio, Toronto PRINTING: Laser Reproduction, Toronto CELESTE SCOPELITES, CAROLYN BELL FARRELL PHOTOGRAPHY: All photography by the artists, except pp. 9,10,15 by Lisa Myers, pp.14, 50-55 by Keesic Douglas, pp. 17, 42 - 43 by John Tamblyn Catalogue of exhibitions held at: C U R AT O R S’ 9 The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 20 September, 2014 – 4 January, 2015 Museum London, 9 May – 30 August, 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Art Gallery of Peterborough, 11 September – 1 November, 2015 MacLaren Art Centre, 28 November, 2015 – 6 March, 2016 LISA MYERS & RACHELLE DICKENSON CURATORS: Rachelle Dickenson and Lisa Myers DISTRIBUTED BY: ABC:Art Books Canada 327 Ste. Catherine West, Suite 229 INTRODUCTION 11 Montréal, Québec H3B 1A2 www.abcartbookscanada.com LEE-ANN MARTIN Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Reading the Talk : Michael Belmore, Hannah Claus, Patricia Deadman, Keesic Douglas, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Melissa General / Rachelle Dickenson, ESSA Y : L A N D U S E 15 Lisa Myers, Lee-Ann Martin. L I S A M Y E R S Co-published by: Museum London, Art Gallery of Peterborough, MacLaren Art Centre. Catalogue of an exhibition of multi-media work by Indigenous Canadian artists held at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery from September 20, 2014 - January 4, 2015. ARTIST WORKS 25 ISBN 978-1-926589-84-8 (pbk.) 1. Native art--Canada--Exhibitions. 2. Art, Canadian--21st century--Exhibitions. I. Martin, Lee-Ann, writer of added commentary II. Myers, Lisa, 1969-, writer of added commentary III. Dickenson, Rachelle, ESSA Y : ALL OUR RELATIONS 64 1976-, writer of added commentary IV. Art Gallery of Peterborough, issuing body V. Robert McLaughlin Gallery, issuing body, host institution SOVEREIGNTY AND THE TALK VI. MacLaren Art Centre, issuing body VII. Museum London (London, Ont.), Issuing body RACHELLE DICKENSON N6549.5.A54R42 2014 704.03'97071074 C2014-904971-4 LIST OF WORKS 73 an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario BIOGRAPHIES 74 INTRODUCTION + ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS GABRIELLE PEACOCK , CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE ROBERT MCLAUGHLIN GALLERY BRIAN MEEHAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MUSEUM LONDON CELESTE SCOPELITES, DIRECTOR, ART GALLERY OF PETERBOROUGH CAROLYN BELL FARRELL , EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MACLAREN ART CENTRE CURATORS’ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are pleased to present Reading the Talk, an exhibition was instrumental in organizing the exhibition and its tour. Rachelle Dickenson and Lisa Myers would like to extend that has allowed us to engage two talented emerging Jaime Kobel has provided an educational program outline a heartfelt Chi Miigwech, Nia:weh, and Thank You to the Indigenous curators, Rachelle Dickenson and Lisa Myers, to accompany the exhibition and its tour, allowing for many people whose support, contribution and sharing of who have worked together over the past two years to greater youth engagement, and we thank her for her their knowledge and expertise extends beyond this exhi- organize an exhibition of the work of six contemporary contribution, as well as Rob Gray who designed this bition. We are thankful for the conversations with Bonnie artists. Through the art of Michael Belmore, Hannah publication with sensitivity to both the words and work. Devine and Jan Longboat that inspired this exhibition. Claus, Patricia Deadman, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Keesic This exhibition and publication have been made It has been a humbling and enriching experience to Douglas and Melissa General, Dickenson and Myers have possible with the assistance of an Ontario Arts Council work with and learn from artists Michael Belmore, explored and reflected on the historic concept of the Aboriginal Curatorial Projects grant, a program that Hannah Claus, Patricia Deadman, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, wampum and the Dish with One Spoon Treaty as a means recognized the “artistic merit, impact and viability” of Keesic Douglas and Melissa General. Nia:weh and chi to investigate the relationship between Anishinaabeg Reading the Talk. This grant allows public institutions to miigwech for all your work that led to incredibly thought- and Haudenosaunee Nations. They have done this with expand their programming while assisting the provoking art. intelligence, sensitivity and humour, which are evident in development of Aboriginal curators and exhibition We would also like to thank the Indigenous Visual their relationship with the artists they have chosen for the infrastructure in Ontario and we are grateful to them for Culture Program at OCAD U for hosting the Wampum exhibition, as well as their erudite essays in this publication. their support. Language and Symbol Symposium, where Bonnie Devine, We thank both of them, along with the artists, for bringing The grant also encourages a connection between Alan Corbiere and Rick Hill shared their research and contemporary explorations to important aspects of galleries and their audiences and, to that end, this knowledge. Chi Miigwech to Brian Charles for sharing the Indigenous history. collaboration between our four institutions is particularly wampum belts he makes. Independent curator Lee-Ann Martin has acted as satisfying. We are grateful to the various agencies that Nia:weh to Lee-Ann Martin for being our mentor on mentor to the curators during this project and we are support our respective efforts, including the Canada this project. grateful to her for the guidance that she has provided.At The Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and the cities And finally, we’d like to say Thank you and Nia:weh Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Senior Curator Linda Jansma of Oshawa, London, Peterborough and Barrie. to Laura Pitkanen and Steve Loft and the rest of our families and friends for their love and unwavering support for our work, research and projects. 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9 BRIAN CHARLES Dish with One Spoon Treaty Belt, 2014 [detail] INTRODUCTION recreated belt, clay beads with acrylic coatings LEE-ANN MARTIN, CURATORIAL MENTOR When invited by Rachelle Dickenson and Lisa Myers in exhibition underline what Rachelle Dickenson calls the 2012 to act as mentor for their curatorial project, my “synergies between medium, symbolism, customary reactions were twofold. First, I was happy to work with practice and critical theory [that] are key strategies used two Indigenous women whose integrity and intellectual to assert the principle of interrelationship at the core of rigour informs their emerging curatorial practices. Then, Indigenous ontology.” my curiosity and imagination were stimulated by their Each bead of a wampum belt is carved individually curatorial premise based upon the Dish with One Spoon and meticulously from quahog and whelk shells. treaty. I hadn't been aware of this important treaty Symbolic language embedded within each belt carries a between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg Nations set of promises for negotiation and understanding among to share the “hunting grounds in the Great Lakes and St. nations, to be read by the wampum keeper. Michael Lawrence Valley region” throughout the 17th, 18th and Belmore, Hannah Claus, Patricia Deadman, Vanessa 19th centuries. While the dish denotes the land and all Dion Fletcher, Keesic Douglas, and Melissa General that the land encompasses, the treaty then outlines create precise works that become the talk of a sharing the bounty of the land among Nations. metaphorical wampum belt to be read and shared with a Both the breadth and originality of the curatorial wide audience. premise reveal contemporary Indigenous perspectives on I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the understandings and treaties among nations, as well as curators, the artists and to Linda Jansma and the staff at interpersonal relationships of the individuals who inhabit The Robert McLaughlin Gallery for their commitment to the land. The astute selection of artists and works for this this ongoing dialogue with the community. 10 INTRODUCTION 11 L A N D U S E L I S A M Y E R S LAND USE Since I am just learning about wampum, I will start by writing writer Leanne Simpson expresses these ideas as “precolonial that a wampum belt is a belt-like object weaved together with Nishnaabeg diplomatic relations” in the form of a living two kinds of beads made from quahog and whelk shells, and treaty renewed every year, which also involved respecting its materials and iconography create meaning through “separate jurisdictions within a shared territory.”4 In other symbols. As a mnemonic device, leaders ‘read the talk’ words, wampum elucidates how lands will be used and embedded in the wampum to establish and renew valued, which differs from the value of land as private agreements between nations.1 The Dish with One Spoon property. treaty was negotiated between the Haudenosaunee and In June 2014, Anishinaabe historian Alan Corbiere Anishinaabeg nations in the seventeenth and eighteenth invited artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher to intervene during a century to share the sustenance of the bowl, the land north brief talk he was presenting for the Law Society of Upper and south of Great Lakes.