Mary Anne Barkhouse and Michael Belmore:
Terra Incognita
September 20 to November 4, 2007
The exhibition, Terra Incognita, featured new and recent sculpture by Mary Anne Barkhouse (Nimpkish band, Kwakiutl First Nation) and Michael Belmore (Ojibwa), whose work concerns our collective impact on the land and the perseverance of the Indigenous. The exhibition featured a suspended sculpture by Barkhouse made from branches chewed and shaped by a beaver colony, and Belmore’s hammered copper shoreline maps including a commissioned piece based on the city of Guelph, among other works in plaster and stone. The phrase, terra incognita, originally described the “unknown lands” that comprised much of North America in the early days of colonial exploration, but has come to represent both a physical and psychological state of being. Early maps depicted known shorelines backed by vast and “empty” lands — an invitation to settlers and explorers to seek new resources, homes, and a better way of life. The repercussions of the Native and foreign cultures that subsequently came together, struggling with the elements and each other, resonate to this day. With their exhibition, Terra Incognita, Barkhouse and Belmore explored and reinterpreted these notions in sculptural form.
In conjunction with Terra Incognita, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre unveiled Colony, a granite and bronze sculpture by Barkhouse and Belmore and the 33rd permanent outdoor installation in the sculpture park. Colony blends Ojibwa and European sculptural traditions in its depiction of the misshipeshu (an Ojibwa underwater lynx) and the beaver. The red and black granite is from the Haliburton Highlands area and is estimated to be about 3 billion years old. The stone is carved by Belmore with the form of the misshipeshu, stylized after the gargoyle sculptures that are prevalent in gothic architecture. Two bronze beavers created by Barkhouse are a distinctly Canadian emblem of industry, an example of nature’s ability to persevere in the face of adversity. Colony is a reminder of the need for protection and respect of our ecosystems.
Colony was commissioned with the support of Augusta and Paul Tribe and their family, for the love of the arts, and with support from the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, 2006. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, which includes a guest essay by Patricia Deadman (Tuscarora), are supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Unveiling in the Sculpture Park
Thursday, September 20 at 7 PM
Featured the 33rd permanently sited outdoor installation, Colony, created by Mary Anne Barkhouse (Nimpkish band, Kwakiutl First Nation) and Michael Belmore (Ojibwa) followed at 7:15 pm by an Artists’ Talk and indoor reception for their exhibition Terra Incognita.
Images:
Mary Anne Barkhouse and Michael Belmore, Colony, 2007 (bronze and granite)
Commissioned with the support of Augusta and Paul Tribe and their family, for the love of the arts, and with support from the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, 2006, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Collection