This summer, the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) is set to host four pieces from acclaimed Lac Seul (Anishinaabe) artist Rebecca Belmore as part of an exhibition entitled VALUE.
Three pieces, “Wild,” “Fountain” and “I AM WORTH MORE THAN ONE MILLION DOLLARS TO MY PEOPLE,” are on display throughout the museum as of the exhibition’s May 15 opening, with the final piece, “Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother,” arriving in August.
Curator of VALUE Jeffrey Boone approached Belmore as part of his work toward a master’s in critical and curatorial studies at UBC which calls on students to organize a practicum exhibition. Belmore agreed and Boone proposed the project to MOA Director Susan Rowley.
“[The MOA] had hoped to work with Rebecca previously and they had actually been in discussions with her for some time,” said Boone. “It was a fit, basically. They were interested in working with her anyway so the timing was correct.”
With a focus on the chaotic and violent encroachment of colonialism on Indigenous life, Belmore’s frequently performance-based work has long been a pillar of the mainstream Canadian arts world, featured in galleries across the country and internationally.
Many of her pieces take on specific social issues in Canadian society like 2003’s “Tent City”; in this case, addressing Vancouver’s housing crisis and its impacts on marginalized peoples. Others, like 1987’s “Rising to the Occasion” and 2006’s “come in cielo così in terra”, merge and juxtapose Euro-settler imagery with Indigenous form.
“Wild,” on display in the MOA’s Koerner European Ceramics Gallery, offers a similar satirical take on colonizer imagery. An opulent four poster bed in the ancien régime style stands among the gallery’s European china and delft blue pots. Beaver pelts drape the four corners of the canopy and the burgundy bedspread is lined with plumes of human hair.
The first incarnation of “Wild,” originally presented in the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Grange Manor in 2001, saw Belmore herself lying in the bed, complementing the piece with an aspect of performance art. At the MOA, the bed lies empty, but the use of human hair as luxury decor alongside beaver pelts on a bed evocative of the European gentry remains a shocking and effective critique of violent colonial exploitation of Indigenous bodies.
Belmore gifted “Wild” to the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) in a 2010 performance on the Hornby Street sidewalk. After standing beside a garbage bin that held a sign reading “I AM WORTH MORE THAN ONE MILLION DOLLARS TO MY PEOPLE,” she washed the sidewalk, removed "Wild's" canopy and bedspread from the bin, spread them on the sidewalk and lay down. After a few minutes, she stood, gathered the materials, handed them to VAG Chief Curator Daina Augaitis and yelled, “I quit!,” symbolically abdicating her involvement in the art world's material valuation of her work.
While the recording of Belmore’s performance involving the sign is captivating and raises questions of artistic and economic value in conflict with personal and cultural connection, the sign itself is of little material interest beyond signifying the event it was a part of. Torn paper pasted on plywood, spray painted and stenciled — the sign’s real artistic value is the comic irony of its commodification.
Belmore’s “Fountain” is the centrepiece of VALUE. Visitors will hear and feel the piece before they see it, entering the Audain Gallery to a noticeable chill and the sound of running water. “Fountain,” displayed by itself in a large dark room, consists of a curtain of water falling into a pool from an elevated pipe. Projected onto the water from behind is a video of Belmore standing by a fire, then thrashing and rolling in the sea before filling a bucket, walking up the beach and throwing the water, now coloured blood-red, onto the camera.
“Fountain” has been exhibited many times since its first production at the 2005 Venice Biennale, but Boone says VALUE’s incarnation is different.
“Even in its initial debut exhibition in Venice — the Canadian pavilion is a fairly small building, so the film had to be modified in order to fit on a water screen that could fit in that small building. But MOA has been able to get the video back to its original projected size,” Boone said.
“[The MOA] fabricated it themselves and [this] version of it, Rebecca thinks, in many ways, is the best version of it that has existed over its 20-year history.”
It’s true that “Fountain” as presented at the MOA is impressive, even physically imposing. The projection shines through the water, flooding the room alternately in yellows, greys and reds. The audio playing from overhead speakers competes with crashing water. The final effect is arresting, making for a must-see sensory experience like few others.
After VALUE closes on October 13, Boone plans to turn his attention to his master’s thesis, grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with as accomplished an artist as Belmore.
“I will never have the opportunity to work with another artist at that level,” he said. “In my opinion, [Belmore is] the most important artist of our time."
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