Exhibition

Friend or Foe features new work by two renowned Canadian artists – Rebecca Belmore and Terrance Houle. The exhibition explores the stereotyped First Nations body within contemporary social contexts. Belmore will present a new video projection based on a recent performance held at The University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology. The performance explores both the relationship between First Nations and the Museum and the homeless aboriginal body. Alongside this work will be, Victorious, a reconfigured video work from the 2009 Hive Festival. Houle’s contribution includes a recent series of pin-hole photographs documenting and questioning aboriginal stereotypes within the context of First Nations dioramas at the Calgary Stampede alongside a new video projection, which examines the myths and proliferations of “Indian Sign Language” and the question of identity within this context.

Friend or Foe boldly questions how the Aboriginal body may be utilized to create and dismantle First Nations stereotypes. Belmore and Houle, each in their own way, utilize their own body and the performance medium to delve into and explore colonialism and the social affects of racial stereotyping.

Anishinabe born Rebecca Belmore bases her practice in Vancouver, British Columbia. Since 1987, her multi-disciplinary work has addressed history, place and identity through the media of sculpture, installation, video and performance. Belmore was Canada’s official representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

Terrance Houle is an internationally recognized multi-disciplinary artist of Blood Tribe ancestry based in Calgary, Alberta. Houle studied at the Alberta College of Art & Design earning a BFA in Fibre in 2003. In 2004, his short, The Wagon Burner, won the Best Experimental Film Award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto.

CURATOR’S TALK:
Saturday, May 29, 2010 4:15pm
As part of the Canadian Art Gallery Hop
http://www.canadianart.ca/microsites/vancouverhop/talks

This exhibition is curated by Darrin Martens, a candidate to the Masters Degree in Critical Curatorial Studies at The University of British Columbia, with support from the Killy Foundation and the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia.