Learn how to decode Canadian art | TVO Arts

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was commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). This large work depicts species of plants and animals listed as threatened, endangered, or extinct in Ontario. You can find surprising details upon close viewing. Belcourt's signature dots - of which there are an estimated 250,000 - bring the artwork to life. She uses the bead, an object insignificant in size and simple in design, as the foundation of her art.

Christi Belcourt (b. 1966) is a Michif (Métis) artist, author and activist who has become best known for large-scale acrylic paintings featuring thousands of painted dots emulating Métis Beadwork. Her Métis ancestry originates from the historic Métis community of Manitou Sakhahigan (Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta.)


Please preview the short film and then share it with your students. Select one or two guiding questions that reflect your curriculum and can guide student research and inquiry connected to the artwork, artists, and the socio-cultural context in which it was created.

In a distinctive style inspired by tradition, The Wisdom of the Universe reveals that the wonders of the natural world are worth fighting for.

TVO Arts - Christi Belcourt, Wisdom of the Universe 

Narrator (00:01):
Art can reimagine tradition and show us a different way of looking at the world, one where the tiniest details help us see the bigger picture. This is "The Wisdom of the Universe" by Metis artist, author, and activist, Christi Belcourt
(00:18):
The painting was created in 2014 and has become a fan favorite at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In fact, visitors voted the wisdom of the universe their favorite artwork in the museum's entire collection. So why is it that this particular depiction of nature resonates so powerfully? What does it have to tell us about our relationship to these wonders of the living world?
Parmis (00:47):
It feels as though I've entered a garden, some kind of mystical garden.
Omii (00:53):
I feel like this is earth. It just looks like earth like the utopian, like the perfect version of earth.
Maya (01:02):
I just love how detailed and intricate it is. When you standing close up versus standing far away, you see different things
Narrator (01:09):
Against a midnight black background, the painting shows a thicket of plant life, lush and thriving. The greenery stretches in every direction. Its different leaves. Fruits and flowers all seem to grow from the same magical stalk and a variety of birds and insects nestle into its branches. Some of the plants and animals you'll find are common like these robins, this sumac or cedar. While others may appear less familiar, such as the eastern prairie fringed orchid, the Cerulean Warblers here and here, and this pair of Karner Blue butterflies fluttering at the center roughly six feet tall and nine feet wide. The painting is huge pulling the viewer into its scene. The image also has a strong sense of symmetry appearing mirrored on both sides, but look carefully and you'll spot moments where the pattern has been playfully disrupted. Now look even closer. The scene is actually made up of thousands upon thousands of tiny dots. Their vibrant colors pop like fireworks against the night sky.
Narisa (02:22):
It reminds me a lot of pointillism, which is it's an art technique where you use tiny dots of pigment to create a picture.
Parmis (02:30):
It also takes me back to the mandala-esque kind of quality that I see in old Persian carpets as well as medieval tapestry.
Narrator (02:42):
Christi Belcourt was born in Scarborough, Ontario in 1966. Her Metis ancestry originates from the historic community of Manitou Sakhahigan. When she was a young child, she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up,
Christi Belcourt (Artist) (02:56):
And for some reason, which I can't explain to this day, the word artist came rolling out of my mouth, and I think it even shocked me at the time because I recall feeling confused by the answer. I think sometimes we are following a path we were always meant to follow.
Narrator (03:16):
Belcourt began painting when she was a teenager, but it wasn't until she was in her early thirties after hearing a talk by the renowned artist Daphne Odjig, that she turned to art full-time.
Christi Belcourt (Artist) (03:28):
I heard Daphne Odjig speak at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, and she said in that talk, if there's any artist out here thinking that you cannot make a career out of the art, let me tell you that you absolutely can and you need to jump in with both feet.
Narrator (03:44):
Belcourt took the artist's words to heart. She says she remembers them every time she puts a paintbrush in her hand. The Woodland School of Art popularized by indigenous artists like Odjig, Norval Morisseau, and Carl Ray was an early influence on Belcourt's work. The style features highly graphic characters rendered in bold lines and bright colors, often with themes exploring the relationships between plants and animals and people. But it was a pair of gifted mukluks that hung on her wall because they were too big that would perhaps have the biggest impact on Belcourt's unique visual style. One day she decided to try to paint the beaded floral design from the boots. The experiment taught her two important lessons. She didn't know enough about plants to paint them, and she didn't know enough about beadwork to paint it either. The realizations spurred a lifelong journey to learn about the artistic legacy of her culture as well as about the natural world around her.
Christi Belcourt (Artist) (04:46):
From then on in my nose was in the plants. I started to know their names. I started to notice how they always had insects on them, how everything is really interconnected.
Narrator (04:59):
The Metis became known as the flower beadwork people for their brightly colored and intricate floral patterns made with glass seed beads, which they used to turn items like clothing, shoes, and bags into objects of beauty. Their designs often emphasize symmetry, balance and harmony. For Beclourt, Beadwork means so much more than simple decoration.
Christi Belcourt (Artist) (05:23):
It has to do with our identity. It has to do with our understanding of our place in the world. It has to do with our languages, it has to do with our culture. So beadwork is just a reflection of who we are as a people.
Narrator (05:35):
Today, the artist is best known for her large scale acrylic paintings that use hundreds of thousands of dots to simulate Metis beadwork. You can find her art in museums at home and abroad and outside traditional galleries as well. From Italian fashion runways and the Canadian parliament buildings to the front lines of environmental protests. Not only is Beclourt a prolific artist, but a prolific organizer too; developing workshops, retreats, and gatherings to support indigenous communities.
Christi Belcourt (Artist) (06:08):
For me, my art and what I believe in and what I speak out about is all one.
Narrator (06:13):
Her art and activism alike are concerned with Indigenous rights, the revitalization of indigenous cultures, languages, and land-based practices, as well as the protection of the environment from threats like resource extraction and climate change.
Maya (06:29):
My hope is that art and activism are just hand in hand always. I don't really like if I look at art that isn't saying something, I don't feel connected to it.
Narrator (06:39):
To create an artwork like "The Wisdom of the Universe", Belcourt begins by painting the entire canvas with a black background. She doesn't do sketches. Instead, drawing the composition directly on the canvas. A process that takes many days In paintings that use symmetry, she draws her designs over one half of the canvas in pencil. She then tapes tracing paper onto the completed half and traces over the design. Beneath the tracing paper is flipped over to cover the blank half of the canvas and the tracing is transferred onto the second half, creating a mirror image. Belcourt begins painting by loading the end of a knitting needle or other similar tools with acrylic paint and pressing it to the surface of the canvas to create precise dots, which she arranges in meticulous patterns to suggest bead work. She estimates that a painting like "The Wisdom of the Universe" contains more than 200,000 individual dots.
Narisa (07:36):
When looking at this, I do not feel that anything is out of place in the painting. Nothing feels like it shouldn't be where it already is.
Maya (07:47):
Everyone who looks at it is going to feel love for the natural world, and that alone spurs you forward to think more about your place in the natural world and what we're doing to it and what's here and what's not going to be here for very long.
Narrator (08:00):
In Ontario, more than 200 species of plants and animals are recognized as threatened and endangered of special concern or locally extinct. "The Wisdom of the Universe" pictures a handful of these, such as the West Virginia White butterfly, the Spring Blue-eyed Mary and the Acadian Flycatcher, a small green songbird endangered due to habitat loss from urban and agricultural development. The single stalk that joins these to all the other plants and animals creates a sort of ecosystem symbolizing risk loss and the interconnectedness of all living things.
(08:38):
Belcourt says that all species, the lands, the waters are one beating organism that pulses like a heart. The paintings large scale gives viewers a sense of the vastness of this network, which includes them too. Though we live in a time of environmental crisis, the artist says it is possible for the planet to return to a state of wellbeing, but it requires a radical change in our thinking. The painting symmetry points to the balance, pattern and harmony we can find in nature. Even Belcourt's painted beads are a powerful symbol suggesting how units as small as molecules combine to build something as great as the universe. The artist asks us to look at these tiny details to see how the bigger picture is built.
Christi Belcourt (Artist) (09:31):
When we learn to listen and govern ourselves according to the natural laws that already exist. This planet is a paradise. Everything we need is here.
Narrator (09:42):
"The Wisdom of the Universe" shows us that every living thing is precious, and that each one is connected by revealing all the wonder that surrounds us. The artwork calls us to take action and protect it.
Christi Belcourt (Artist) (09:56):
The hope is not in the painting. The hope is in you.

How has Belcourt centred Indigenous perspectives and challenged colonization and climate justice?

How does Belcourt explore concepts of interconnectivity in her artwork?

How can art making and artworks promote renewal and healing in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities as well as reconciliation and dialogue with non-Indigenous communities?

Is it significant that Belcourt uses both Métis and Western artmaking techniques? Or that it is often exhibited in traditional galleries but has also appeared in government institutions and European runways?

The work is symmetrical - almost. Upon close viewing, how do disruptions of symmetry communicate meaning?

In what ways is Canadian identity tied to our relationships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities? To the land? To our non-human relations?

How does Christi Belcourt uphold or push the role of artist?

How might you represent your relationship to land through an artwork, dance composition, dramatic scene, or original song?

How might you represent the relationship between several plants and/or animals (ecosystem) through an artwork, dance composition, dramatic scene, or original song?

This painting reflects Belcourt’s worldview. How does that contrast with your own worldview? Can you use an artwork, dance composition, dramatic scene, poem, or original song to represent your world view?

Create an artwork, dance composition, dramatic scene, poem, or original song to represent the concept of

This guide on The Wisdom of the Universe by Christi Belcourt has been thoughtfully created to assist teachers with their curriculum and lessons.

The Wisdom of the Universe

Christi Belcourt

About the study guide

About the study guide

About the artwork:

About the artist:

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The Wisdom of the UniverseThe Wisdom of the Universe

Christi Belcourt

About the study guide

About the study guide

About the artwork:

About the artist:

Supporting Links

The Wisdom of the Universe