THUNDER BAY — Lac Seul multidisciplinary artist Rebecca Belmore highlighted her March 5, 1819 film installation and other works during her March 6 artist talk at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.
The March 5, 1819 film installation was on display along with Belmore’s art piece Shanawdithit, The Last of the Beothuk, which features stone sculptures of her feet and hands, at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery until March 9.
“When I was growing up in Upsala at the little public school we had there, I remember studying history and reading in the history book one paragraph about the Beothuk people,” Belmore, who began creating art in Thunder Bay in her early 20s. “What I recall reading is this one little paragraph where it said that these Indigenous people … became extinct. It always puzzled me and troubled me, so finally in 2001 I started to make work about this history.”
Belmore says the Beothuk are considered to be extinct, but some of their DNA lives on with the Mi’kmaq and Innu peoples.
“But as a cultural, very distinct society, they are considered to be non-existent today,” Belmore says. “In 1807, 1809, the governor of Newfoundland at that time, (John) Holloway, was very concerned about the fact that the Beothuk and the settlers were having very difficult relationships and there was a lot of violence.”
Belmore says one of her older brothers was shocked by the March 5, 1819 film installation.
“He said it totally broke his heart, it shocked him and he was shocked that it could move him so deeply,” Belmore says. “He wasn’t expecting it, of course, but for me that’s a good sign that people who are not accustomed to looking at contemporary art can still get it, get something from it.”
Matthew Hills, executive director at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, says they were deeply privileged to have Belmore to present her artist talk.
“The fact that she came from Lac Seul First Nation, that she comes from northwestern Ontario, that her work speaks to and of this place in so much powerful ways resonates deeply with our institution, our community and I feel profoundly privileged that she came and spoke to us here and that she shared so much of her work and her thinking so generously,” Hills says. “I just am deeply happy and pleased that so many people came out and that Rebecca was so generous with her time and thinking and depth. It’s very evident the power of Rebecca’s work and how articulate she is when you are at talks like this and you see the public reaction and some of the questions that come up.”
Belmore, who has exhibited across Canada and internationally since the early 1990s, was the first Indigenous woman to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2005, where she exhibited Fountain in the Canadian Pavilion.
