Learn how to decode Canadian art | TVO Arts

The incredible diversity of Canada shines through its art. In this season, meet diverse Canadian artists from the past and present. Decode their iconic works with new perspectives.

Think you know Canadian art? Tune into these videos that decode some of our country’s most iconic pieces.

This is Canadian art decoded. Videos with new perspectives

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All it takes is an inquisitive eye and curious mind to “understand” art better. We hope you feel proud and ready to decode the next masterpiece.

What do these forests make you feel? Their weight and density, their crowded orderliness. There is scarcely room for another tree and yet there is space around each.

Church at Yuquot Villiage (Indian Church)

Canadian icon Emily Carr painted Church in Yuquot Village 1929 on the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island. Originally named Indian Church, it's easily her most well-known and reproduced work of art. Dive into this episode to decode this famous piece, and learn why it's still relevant even today.

TVO Arts - Emily Carr, Church in Yuquot Village

00:00
(gentle music)
00:04
CATHERINE: Art raises questions, tell stories
00:07
and sparks debate.
00:11
This is "Church in Yuquot Village".
00:14
It was originally named "Indian Church",
00:16
and was painted by Canadian female icon, Emily Carr.
00:20
It's her most well-known and reproduced work of art.
00:25
Even at first glance, it's full of contrast.
00:29
SIHAN: I see the forest first,
00:31
and that might seem strange
00:34
because of how bright the white church is.
00:37
JESSICA: The church is imposing
00:38
on the natural environment.
00:40
There's a heaviness and a weight to the church.
00:43
DARYL: To me, this feels profoundly Canadian.
00:46
CATHERINE: Carr painted it in 1929
00:48
on the Pacific Coast of Vancouver Island.
00:51
The village is the ancestral territory
00:53
of the Mowachaht people.
00:56
The piece is serene and spiritual, but there's tension.
01:01
You feel like you're being pulled in and out.
01:04
It uses one point perspective, which lures us forward.
01:09
The church is depicted in a different style than the rest.
01:12
Small, geometric and static with no windows.
01:17
The rain forest is thriving, towering, alive.
01:22
The colours are also contrasting.
01:26
It is bold and dreamlike.
01:28
And it's this style from Carr's later years
01:31
for which she is best remembered.
01:34
Emily Carr was not your typical Victorian woman,
01:36
independent and eccentric.
01:39
She even had a pet monkey.
01:41
For decades she traveled
01:42
to remote communities in British Columbia.
01:44
Her work, exploring the presence of God in nature
01:47
and examining the lives of indigenous peoples.
01:50
But she spent much of her career in obscurity.
01:53
Discouraged, she barely painted for many years.
01:57
Then in 1927, she was asked to exhibit
02:01
the National Gallery in Ottawa.
02:03
She met with members of the famed Group of Seven,
02:06
who admired her work and in turn inspired her.
02:10
Reignited at age 57, she moved to her boldest phase.
02:15
In 1929, when Carr traveled to Yuquot,
02:18
she discovered an area in flux.
02:21
First nations people were being increasingly persecuted,
02:24
and important cultural objects stolen from them.
02:27
Whereas once she might have depicted a totem pole,
02:30
now she painted a church.
02:32
This photo likely depicts the area at the time.
02:36
DARYL: Well, the settlement's missing,
02:37
there's just the church and the towering nature around it.
02:42
SIHAN: It doesn't seem like it's proportional
02:44
compared to the real life photo.
02:46
NEHAL: Like, is it a cemetery, is it not?
02:49
Like it could be a vegetable garden?
02:51
CATHERINE: How Carr chose to paint this place matters.
02:55
She changed the view,
02:56
leaving a lot of the buildings out
02:58
and moving the cemetery closer.
03:02
The woods are also closer to the church itself.
03:06
She chose an elongated framing that added drama.
03:10
Perhaps she was exploring the impact of colonialism
03:13
that she'd witnessed firsthand.
03:16
But whose gaze is this painted from?
03:18
A Victorian woman or an indigenous ally?
03:21
The question of perspective is a difficult one to address.
03:26
SIHAN: When I hear the name "Indian Church",
03:29
I think this is a name from an artist of her time.
03:34
JACK: The name "Indian Church",
03:36
it almost doesn't suit the painting even at face value.
03:40
DARYL: I don't like the name Indian,
03:41
but I also think it's part of her observation
03:44
that missionaries were replacing indigenous spiritualism
03:49
with their own.
03:51
CATHERINE: Our understanding of art
03:52
is affected by where, how,
03:55
and when we experience it.
03:57
Today, "Church in Yuquot Village"
03:59
is part of the Art Gallery of Ontario's
04:01
permanent collection.
04:02
In 2018, they changed the name
04:05
attempting to eliminate culturally insensitive language.
04:09
When on display, the AGO placed it
04:11
next to Sonny Assu's "Re-invaders",
04:13
digital intervention on an Emily Carr painting.
04:16
The artist was challenging the absence
04:18
of indigenous peoples in Canadian landscape painting.
04:22
SONNY: It's response to Carr's painting.
04:24
I tag the artwork with Kwakwaka'wakw formline elements
04:27
to reclaim the landscape and to combat the colonial gaze.
04:30
CATHERINE: Almost 100 years later,
04:32
we find ourselves with a new perspective
04:35
on a famous piece of Canadian art.
04:37
Not many paintings can do that.
04:39
Join us as we decode Canadian art
04:42
and understand why looking at art matters.
04:46
(gentle music)

Church in Yuquot Village (Indian Church)

Every time you dig deeper into a work of art, your understanding grows. So keep it up! 

I felt that that was an inherently instantaneous image, or an image of instantaneity and it was photographic somehow. It was an invitation for me to do something with it.” 

A Sudden Gust of Wind (after&nbsp;Hokusai)

A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) by Vancouver-based artist Jeff Wall is housed at the Tate Modern in London. The photograph attempts to capture a moment in time, but it is actually made up of more than 100 individual photographs put together.  This episode reveals how photography doesn't just capture a moment; it can also construct one.

TVO Arts - Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)

00:00
(bright music)
00:07
NARRATOR: What is it about photography
00:09
that sets it apart from other types of art?
00:12
From the beginning, photography promised to capture
00:15
an instant, share truth, freeze a moment in time.
00:20
Well, maybe it's time to look at photography
00:22
with a new lens.
00:24
This is "A Sudden Gust of Wind After Hokusai,"
00:27
by Vancouver-based artist, Jeff Wall.
00:30
It was made in 1993.
00:32
Today, you can see it at the Tate Modern in London, England,
00:36
alongside some of the greatest artworks
00:38
from the past century.
00:40
JOSH: Well, the first thing that I see
00:41
is obviously the paper just flying everywhere,
00:43
and it looks very chaotic.
00:46
CLAIRE: Yeah, he's somehow captured this perfect moment
00:49
of those pages blowing perfectly across his frame.
00:53
MASAMI: I think the man in the center is really enjoying
00:57
to see all the papers in the sky,
01:00
and then try to catch, but other people
01:03
are not really happy.
01:05
NARRATOR: It's true, you can pretty much
01:06
feel the strength of the breeze whipping through the scene.
01:10
The sky is bleak. You have to wonder, is a storm coming?
01:14
In the foreground, a few unlucky people battle the elements.
01:20
There's something very comical and frustrating
01:22
as they fall prey to the wind.
01:24
We've all been there.
01:26
Here, someone has lost their hat, and they look up,
01:29
doubtful it will ever return.
01:32
And over here, precious papers are blowing across the sky.
01:36
Wall's photograph is based on this woodblock print
01:40
that depicts travelers near Mount Fuji on a blustery day.
01:43
It was created by Japanese Master
01:45
Katsushika Hokusai in the 1830s.
01:49
You may already know Hokusai for this famous image,
01:52
"The Great Wave off Kanagawa."
01:55
MARINELLA: For sure the images are similar.
01:58
I do get the idea that everyone is on
02:01
like some particular journey.
02:03
JOSH: The papers and the people,
02:05
the tree, seems to be in the same spot.
02:07
MASAMI: It's really, really old.
02:09
It's more like, I feel, like a history coming again,
02:12
like history follows history again.
02:15
NARRATOR: Let's talk about Jeff Wall.
02:17
Wall is a celebrated photographer
02:19
living and working in Vancouver today.
02:22
But he's also trained as an art historian,
02:24
and many of his works reference masters
02:27
like Eugene Delacroix and Edouard Manet.
02:30
At the start of his career, Jeff Wall
02:32
practiced painting and drawing.
02:34
But when he was about 20, his father bought him
02:36
his first camera, and he never looked back.
02:40
The images Jeff Wall creates feel like scenes from a movie.
02:44
And that's because he creates them like movies,
02:47
with actors, sets, and tech crews.
02:50
He often displays his images on light boxes,
02:53
which makes you feel like you're watching
02:54
a scene from a film.
02:57
Wall came of age as an artist during the heyday of
03:00
conceptual art, a type of art in which the idea
03:03
behind the piece is the most important part of the artwork.
03:08
He is considered a pioneer of conceptual photography.
03:12
That's when a photograph is used to picture an idea
03:15
or to construct a false reality.
03:18
Jeff Wall is one of a number of artists from Vancouver
03:20
who began exploring conceptual photography around the 1980s.
03:25
These artists are known as the Vancouver School.
03:28
Other members include Ken Lum, Stan Douglas,
03:32
and Rodney Graham, to name a few,
03:34
each pushing the boundaries of photography.
03:37
MARINELLA: He must've had a great time making this image.
03:41
JOSH: The likelihood of all of that happening
03:43
at the same time seems pretty wild.
03:46
I don't think that would happen in real life.
03:49
MASAMI: Like, he's probably try a whole day
03:52
or maybe a week to get this one best photo.
03:55
I think it's very difficult to do it.
03:58
NARRATOR: "A Sudden Gust of Wind" is actually made up
04:00
of more than 100 individual photographs.
04:04
What you see is a digital photo montage.
04:08
Wall photographed the scene with his camera positioned
04:10
in the exact same place, set to the same focus
04:14
and aperture size, then he stitched the shots together
04:18
with photo editing software.
04:19
The cast of characters is just that, a group of people
04:23
handpicked by Jeff Wall to star in his production.
04:26
Knowing it would be nearly impossible to capture the scene
04:29
in a single snap, Wall constructed it piece by piece.
04:34
For over a year, he photographed each person
04:36
at this exact location, a cranberry farm
04:39
just outside of Vancouver, sometimes together,
04:43
sometimes alone, with natural wind,
04:46
and sometimes with a wind machine.
04:49
The pages flying up were originally suspended
04:51
from strings and long poles.
04:53
Some sheets were even thrown straight into the air.
04:57
You can imagine the time it took to get it right.
05:00
This style of digital photo montage
05:03
plays through in many of Wall's pieces.
05:06
Creating images like these takes real planning.
05:09
In this study, you can see how Wall
05:12
composed "A Sudden Gust of Wind."
05:14
He used a grid as a guide to arrange
05:16
the scene's major elements,
05:19
to probably scale the pages
05:21
and plot out their flight pattern.
05:24
The papers are grouped around a diagonal line
05:26
that cuts across the frame from the bottom left
05:30
to the top right.
05:32
This creates a sense of movement, and draws the eye up
05:36
from the crowd into the sky.
05:38
We feel the wind. We are traveling with the gust.
05:43
And as you can see, every decision
05:44
carefully matches the inspiration.
05:47
Wall was attracted to the original Hokusai piece
05:50
because it is an image of instantaneity.
05:54
It pictures an instant much the same way
05:56
we think photography does.
05:59
JOSH: It's just really cool that he can be inspired
06:02
by something, and then also just recreate it in a way,
06:05
like in his own way.
06:06
CLAIRE: More thought has been put into each
06:08
and every piece of detail of this,
06:11
which I didn't appreciate initially.
06:13
MASAMI: I feel like photographs is more like
06:14
a commercial art, but this photo is like art, art, art.
06:19
NARRATOR: What "A Sudden Gust of Wind" tells us
06:22
is that photography doesn't only capture a moment,
06:25
it can also construct one.
06:27
Just like film and painting,
06:29
photography can be invented from pure fantasy.
06:33
Today, we all face a never-ending scroll
06:36
of fabricated images.
06:39
Like "A Sudden Gust of Wind," it can be difficult to tell
06:42
what's real and what's not.
06:44
Jeff Wall makes the case that seeing is no longer believing,
06:49
and perhaps it never was.
06:51
Join us as we decode Canadian art
06:54
and understand why looking at art matters.
06:57
(bright music)

Bravo on the decoding. You’re definitely getting the hang of this and your mind is growing. So don’t stop now!

I created Hometown Queen to re-write my personal history and to pay homage to my complicated relationship with my hometown, Hamilton.”

Hometown Queen

Hometown Queen by Camille Turner, was created in 2010.  It's part of a larger series featuring the artist's character, Miss Canadiana - a fictitious pageant queen who makes live appearances around the world. Follow along, as Miss Canadiana travels back to her childhood home to tell a story of race and belonging.

TVO Arts, Camille Turner Hometown Queen

00:01
(gentle music)
00:06
NARRATOR: Art has long been used
00:07
to define what a nation is
00:09
and who belongs there.
00:11
But art can also be used to challenge
00:14
and change those same ideas.
00:16
This is Hometown Queen by Camille Turner.
00:20
Created in 2010,
00:22
the photograph features the character
00:23
for which she's best known,
00:25
Miss Canadiana.
00:28
HEIDI: I see a beauty queen.
00:31
She is black.
00:33
She is holding yellow roses,
00:35
and she is in front of a sepia toned picture
00:38
of some kind of factory.
00:40
DERRON: My first reaction is it's a black beauty queen
00:43
and it's in colour,
00:45
and it's so nice to see,
00:46
'cause you don't usually see that in society,
00:49
where a black person is so prominent in a picture
00:53
or as a Canadian beauty queen.
00:55
SUNITA: Only thing that stands out is that
00:57
this woman has been photoshopped into this background.
01:00
So meaning that she doesn't belong there.
01:03
NARRATOR: Wearing her trademark red gown,
01:05
tiara, and sash,
01:07
Miss Canadiana strikes a jovial pose in front of all things,
01:11
a steel mill, dazzling and regal.
01:14
The beauty queen clutches a bouquet of roses
01:17
and shoots a big, bright smile at the camera.
01:20
Striking, familiar.
01:22
The image feels like a postcard or an ad,
01:26
but there's an obvious tension between the glamorous queen
01:29
and her industrial surroundings.
01:31
CAMILLE: I was born in Kingston, Jamaica,
01:34
and I was nine years old when I came to Canada
01:36
and then we moved to Hamilton,
01:39
and we lived there until I left in my early twenties.
01:45
NARRATOR: Her early art included works in textiles,
01:48
multimedia and performance.
01:50
In fact, Turner is considered
01:52
one of Canada's first black performance artists.
01:55
So what is Performance Art?
01:57
Performance Art is a type of artwork
01:59
created through actions
02:01
performed by the artist or other participants.
02:04
Canadian Performance Art emerged in the 1970s.
02:08
Some of the country's most famous Performance artists
02:11
include Rebecca Belmore, Suzy Lake,
02:14
and Cassils.
02:17
By centering her own body in her art,
02:20
Turner uses performance to confront how blackness
02:22
is perceived in Canada.
02:24
Miss Canadiana was a persona created to do just that.
02:28
The idea came to her in 1998,
02:31
after an experience at a shopping mall
02:33
in North Bay, Ontario.
02:36
She made a quick pit stop to pick up some supplies
02:38
before a camping trip.
02:40
While she wasn't dressed differently
02:42
or acting strangely,
02:44
the other shoppers openly stared
02:45
because of the colour of her skin.
02:48
CAMILLE: But what it felt like
02:49
was just being surrounded by people
02:52
who were clearly othering me. (laughs)
02:55
You know, just this feeling of being something else,
03:00
not even someone else.
03:02
NARRATOR: Turner made her debut performance
03:04
as the charming Miss Canadiana
03:06
on Parliament Hill, Canada day, 2002.
03:10
She simply showed up,
03:12
uninvited, and people flocked to her.
03:15
She since appeared in cities across Canada,
03:17
and countries around the world.
03:20
Always in character,
03:21
she carries out the duties typical of a beauty queen.
03:24
Posing for pictures,
03:26
handing out flags,
03:27
shaking hands,
03:29
signing autographs.
03:30
And of course, attending ceremonies and festivals.
03:34
She once even led a walking tour of Toronto,
03:37
highlighting landmarks
03:38
of the city's hidden black histories and slavery in Canada.
03:43
Sometimes she's invited to perform
03:45
and sometimes she just pops up.
03:47
Whether some recognize it as Performance Art,
03:50
or mistake her for a real pageant queen,
03:52
hundreds have collected an autograph
03:54
from Miss Canadiana or posed for a snapshot.
03:58
The performance delightfully blurs the line
04:00
between fantasy and reality.
04:03
Hometown Queen is a composite made from two parts.
04:07
The background photo taken on location,
04:09
outside a steel mill,
04:11
and a portrait of the artist
04:13
taken at her studio.
04:15
Turner then combined the images.
04:17
Miss Canadiana appears in full colour,
04:20
popping out against the monochromatic background.
04:23
The sense of contrast is heightened
04:25
by the mismatch subjects,
04:27
the beauty queen against heavy industry.
04:31
It makes you ask,
04:32
what is Miss Canadiana doing here?
04:34
How does she fit into this space?
04:37
SUNITA: The photo still thinks,
04:39
I'm going to include myself into an environment
04:43
that is not necessarily conducive
04:45
for a beauty queen.
04:46
DERRON: Because she's black,
04:48
she's trying to send a message,
04:50
and the message is,
04:51
this is the way she sees herself
04:53
as this vibrant, colourful person.
04:56
But the world behind her is not as accepting.
05:00
It's very black and white and more dark.
05:03
HEIDI: The contrast of the background photo
05:08
it's very industrial,
05:09
and I would expect her to be in, you know,
05:12
a glamorous setting on a stage,
05:14
or maybe at a fancy hotel or something like that.
05:17
NARRATOR: Hometown Queen is one of six photographs
05:19
from a series that pictures Miss Canadiana
05:22
playfully pose in front of locations around Hamilton,
05:25
that are significant to Turner.
05:28
The factory for instance,
05:30
represents the local steel industry
05:32
where her father worked as a boiler maker.
05:35
Another photo shows the view of the city,
05:37
the artist remembers from the day
05:39
she first arrived in Hamilton.
05:42
The sepia tone, connotes memory and nostalgia.
05:45
After traveling widely as Miss Canadiana,
05:48
Turner brings the character back to her own hometown.
05:51
And there,
05:52
the artist faces some complicated feelings
05:54
about the place where she was raised.
05:56
CAMILLE: For me, you know,
05:58
as a very, very shy black child growing up in Hamilton,
06:03
it was not an easy place at all.
06:06
NARRATOR: Ultimately,
06:07
Hometown Queen is a photo about belonging
06:09
and the search for a sense of home.
06:12
By using the persona of a beauty queen,
06:14
every Miss Canadiana performance
06:16
challenges our ideals of both beauty and nationality.
06:20
Who gets to represent these things, and who gets left out?
06:24
It's important to recognize that the characters title
06:26
is not Miss Canada,
06:28
It's Miss Canadiana.
06:30
This tiny distinction signifies
06:32
that Turner is addressing the symbols,
06:34
cliches and stereotypes associated with the country.
06:38
And it is precisely our national myth
06:41
that Miss Canadiana seeks to disrupt.
06:44
By claiming to represent the nation,
06:46
she calls attention to the absence of blackness
06:48
from the usual notions of Canadian identity.
06:52
Miss Canadiana asks you to confront your assumptions.
06:56
What should a Canadian beauty queen look like?
06:58
If not like Turner?
07:00
Why not?
07:01
SUNITA: I think as a black woman living in the west,
07:05
white women's beauty is the standard.
07:08
DERRON: Canada is deemed like a multicultural country,
07:12
and it is multicultural,
07:14
but there's still a lot of racism.
07:16
And the racism isn't very obvious.
07:19
NARRATOR: Multiculturalism has been a defining principle
07:22
of Canada for a long time.
07:24
But a 2020 poll found that nearly a third of all Canadians
07:28
say they've personally experienced racism
07:31
in the past year.
07:33
Is Canada really the inclusive place it says it is?
07:36
Or is multiculturalism more of a branding image
07:39
than a core value?
07:42
The question, "who is made to feel they belong here?"
07:45
is as relevant as ever.
07:47
So Miss Canadiana's message feels urgent.
07:51
Turner has said that when she walks down the street,
07:53
it's different than when Miss Canadiana does it.
07:56
In costume, people just treat her differently.
07:58
CAMILLE: Identity absolutely is a performance.
08:02
And we're constructing ourselves all the time.
08:06
NARRATOR: The artist wants you
08:08
to see that identity is something you put on,
08:11
just like Miss Canadiana's silky sash
08:13
and shimmery Tiara.
08:15
Join us as we decode Canadian art,
08:18
and understand why looking at art matters.
08:22
(gentle music)

You see: art’s not just for critics or historians. It’s for everyone. Now that your art muscles are warmed up, check out the next piece.

With these large-scale paintings really what I’m trying to do is to authorize indigenous experience both historic and contemporary into this canon of art history. We’ve been erased from the art history of this continent.”

Resurgence of the People

Cree artist Kent Monkman uses the language of history painting to challenge the history we've been told.

TVO Arts, Kent Monkman, Resurgence of the People

00:01
(bright music)
00:06
NARRATOR: History paintings can bring the past to life.
00:10
They are grand and packed with emotion,
00:12
but their stories are often told
00:14
from a white European perspective.
00:18
Today, Kent Monkman,
00:20
one of Canada's most exciting contemporary artists
00:23
is exploring history from an indigenous point of view.
00:27
This is 'Resurgence Of The People' created in 2019.
00:32
It was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
00:36
One of the world's largest museums,
00:38
which houses many well-known history paintings
00:41
in its collection.
00:42
'Resurgence Of The People' is massive at 11 by 22 feet.
00:47
Just look at it here on display
00:49
in the great hall at the Met.
00:51
You have to step back to take in all the action.
00:55
'Resurgence Of The People' is one of two paintings
00:58
in a diptych, a piece of art created in two parts.
01:02
Its companion piece is 'Welcoming The Newcomers'.
01:06
Together, they are named 'Mistikôsiwak'
01:10
a Cree term that means wooden boat people,
01:12
which was originally applied to French settlers.
01:16
MICHAEL: Got chills up my spine
01:17
because it strikes images that are archetypical for me
01:22
as an indigenous person.
01:24
DON: So the first thing I see is
01:25
just the community,
01:27
just everyone all huddled together.
01:30
The next thing I see is really the sea itself,
01:33
how dark it is.
01:35
DARYL: Every little spot you look in the boat,
01:38
there's something happening.
01:39
There's something really compelling happening.
01:41
NARRATOR: Where to start?
01:43
With the sea, it's rising dangerously
01:46
and polluted with plastic bottles.
01:48
This pelican appears sick, covered in oil,
01:51
but there surging forward is a wooden boat
01:55
filled with brave passengers.
01:57
They represent many different backgrounds,
01:59
but most are indigenous.
02:02
Not everyone is lucky to be in the boat.
02:04
Some cling desperately to its side.
02:06
The scene is reminiscent of refugee filled vessels
02:10
crossing the Mediterranean.
02:12
At the helm is a figure you can't miss
02:14
standing tall with her arms stretched out,
02:17
holding an eagle feather
02:18
is Kent Monkman's alter ego,
02:20
Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
02:23
Yes, you heard that right.
02:24
More on her later.
02:26
There are so many vivid details to take in,
02:29
like the beaver in the enter of the boat,
02:31
or the idle no more patch on a passenger's jacket.
02:35
And here are militants holding up weapons
02:37
on the small island in the back.
02:40
One flashes the okay hand signal
02:42
associated with white supremacists.
02:45
Raised in Manitoba,
02:47
Kent Monkman is a member of Fisher River Cree nation
02:50
located on treaty five territory.
02:53
As a child, he remembers taking school field trips
02:56
to the Manitoba Museum where he saw idyllic dioramas
03:00
of indigenous people hunting bison and camping on the land.
03:04
But these scenes felt disconnected
03:06
from the lived experiences
03:08
of indigenous people in the present.
03:11
He recalls these visits as
03:12
"inspirational and scarring at the same time."
03:17
Drawing on this experience,
03:19
the artist leans deep into the style and themes
03:21
of history painting.
03:24
Particularly the artists who painted scenes
03:26
of Turtle Island,
03:27
the name many indigenous people use
03:29
for the North American continent.
03:32
These works often ignored, erased,
03:35
or manipulated representations of indigenous peoples.
03:39
KENT MONKMAN: Something I've been looking at
03:40
in my art practice
03:41
for many years,
03:42
are the paintings or sculptures made by the settler artists
03:45
who were looking at indigenous people.
03:48
And it's always this romantic view of the vanishing race.
03:52
In fact, we're very much alive.
03:54
My work really is refuting those themes of disappearance.
03:59
NARRATOR: Making a special appearance
04:00
throughout his artwork,
04:01
is Monkman's magnificent alter ego,
04:05
Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
04:07
Told you we'd get back to her.
04:10
Her name holds a playful double meaning.
04:13
Miss Chief is a time-traveling, shape-shifting,
04:16
gender fluid character who Monkman sometimes performs as,
04:20
and who appears in many of the artist's works.
04:24
She embodies the mythological trickster persona.
04:28
Her antics often undermining
04:30
and subverting colonial authority.
04:33
Monkman invented the character
04:35
as a way to represent indigenous,
04:37
specifically Cree perspectives.
04:40
Miss Chief allows the artists to be present in history,
04:44
something he can't do as Kent Monkman.
04:49
MICHAEL: We have always since time and memorial
04:52
had two spirited people.
04:53
So it's never been a social stigma for us.
04:57
DON: Well, I love this character,
04:59
how they are two spirits and having both those,
05:03
it's like contemporary masculine and feminine features
05:07
that incorporated into the character itself.
05:10
NARRATOR: In 'Resurgence Of The People',
05:12
Miss Chief wears a red scarf,
05:14
high heels and beaded earrings.
05:17
She leads through the chaos
05:19
standing tall with her leg braced
05:21
against the side of the boat.
05:23
Does this stance look familiar?
05:26
To make 'Resurgence',
05:27
Monkman drew inspiration from many historic masterpieces,
05:31
some found in the Met's own collection.
05:34
Like 'Washington Crossing The Delaware' by Emanuel Leutze.
05:39
Washington is one of the heroes
05:41
of the national founding myth
05:42
of the United States of America.
05:44
But he was both an assimilationist and a slave holder,
05:48
and is not viewed as a hero by everyone today.
05:52
Borrowing the composition and themes
05:53
from such a notable piece,
05:55
Monkman flips the script,
05:57
making Miss Chief and her indigenous paddlers
06:00
the heroes of this story.
06:03
Another Met painting Monkman references
06:05
is 'The Natchez' by Eugene Delacroix.
06:08
The family holding their dying newborn
06:11
are said to be the very last of the Natchez nation
06:14
fleeing the massacre of their people by French colonists.
06:18
In Monkman's version,
06:19
the family is now a same sex couple
06:22
depicted as happy and healthy.
06:25
Despite vanishing race myths
06:27
perpetuated by artists like Delacroix,
06:30
the Natchez nation still exists today.
06:34
Yet another painting Monkman alludes to
06:36
is the 'Massacre Of The Innocents'
06:38
by Francois Joseph Navez.
06:41
Navez painted the biblical story
06:43
of when King Herod ordered the execution
06:45
of all male babies in Bethlehem.
06:48
In 'Resurgence', the trio of children
06:50
is pictured with their hair cropped,
06:52
a reference to the treatment of indigenous children
06:54
in the Canadian residential school system.
06:57
KENT MONKMAN: To be able to reflect
06:59
at least as an indigenous person,
07:01
what this colonial history has meant to us.
07:04
As an artist, I wanted to bring indigenous experience
07:08
into this canon of art history.
07:10
NARRATOR: It's hard to imagine how this elaborate piece
07:12
came to life.
07:14
To start, Monkman gathered reference material.
07:18
He combined the images and composed the scene
07:20
as pencil sketches.
07:22
Then he cast real life models to play the characters.
07:26
Staging and photographing the scene
07:28
as a tableau in his studio.
07:31
to paint at such a large scale,
07:33
Monkman borrows a tradition from the old masters
07:36
known as the atelier model.
07:38
That's where the artist is assisted by apprentices.
07:42
For 'Mistikôsiwak',
07:43
Monkman directed a team of 10 painting assistants
07:46
then he himself completed the detailed work.
07:49
The finished work is impressive,
07:52
coming in at roughly the same size as the key
07:54
on an NBA basketball court.
07:57
By choosing such a grand size,
07:59
Monkman gives 'Resurgence' a similar authority
08:02
to the other large historic works on display at the Met.
08:06
MICHAEL:The fact that an indigenous person
08:09
is rewriting the rules of art
08:13
and bringing up such ancient methods
08:15
to create such majestic art,
08:18
I just feel such a sense of pride
08:20
and it just makes me want to know more and more.
08:23
DARYL AITKEN: I do think that's his genius
08:25
that he tells stories that have a very specific message
08:30
about the pervasive impact of settler actions.
08:34
And he doesn't in a very, very personal way.
08:37
NARRATOR: So what should you take away
08:39
from this provocative piece?
08:41
Monkman uses the language of history painting
08:44
to challenge the history we've been told.
08:47
The rough polluted waters,
08:48
the violent militants,
08:50
and the overcrowded boats signal danger.
08:53
But the indigenous people are shown to be resilient,
08:56
and here they steer the craft through uncertain times.
09:00
'Resurgence Of The People'
09:01
says that if we question our picture of the past,
09:04
we can reach a better future together.
09:07
Join us as we decode Canadian art
09:10
and understand why looking at art matters.
09:16
(bright music)

Circuits are firing. Ideas are hatching. Looking at art makes the brain happy. So do your cortex good and bring more art into your world. Let’s go!

I like to make people happy and everything happy. I am the light of happiness and I am a dancing owl.”

The Enchanted Owl

Filtering the Arctic world through her vivid imagination, Kenojuak Ashevak and The Enchanted Owl helped Inuit printmaking take off.

TVO Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, The Enchanted Owl

00:00
(gentle music)
00:06
NARRATOR: Behind one of Canada's best known artworks
00:09
is a story of human creativity and survival.
00:13
This is The Enchanted Owl.
00:15
It was created by Kenojuak Ashevak in 1960.
00:20
Maybe you've seen it before?
00:22
It's become a symbol of Canadian art,
00:24
and it was even on a postage stamp in 1970.
00:28
The Enchanted Owl is, perhaps,
00:29
the most famous work of Inuit art,
00:32
but why?
00:34
ANTOINETTE: I will describe what I see, okay?
00:36
I see an owl.
00:37
And to me, the owl looks surprised.
00:42
DEE: It has a very strong graphic design appearance.
00:47
It's not complicated.
00:49
NOEL: Enchantment is a perfect word
00:50
to describe this piece of art.
00:52
Really, it draws me in.
00:54
NARRATOR: What a splendid looking owl.
00:57
More fantastic than your average bird.
01:00
The figure is highly stylized,
01:02
made of pleasing simplified forms
01:05
with long whimsical feathers,
01:08
and it's coloured in a striking two-tone scheme.
01:11
NOEL: A lot of this art, for me,
01:12
is the simplicity of the art
01:14
is a lot of its strength.
01:15
SUNITA: It's that feathers that just, kind of,
01:17
like, elongate as you keep looking.
01:20
And the owl itself standing really tall.
01:23
DARYL: This became a very iconic image
01:25
when I was in high school.
01:26
I think that's why I know it.
01:28
NARRATOR: Perhaps what makes the artwork so iconic
01:30
is it's strong graphic quality.
01:33
The Enchanted Owl catches the eye
01:35
with its crisp, confident lines and fluid shapes,
01:39
with feathers like rays
01:41
and the colour powering outwards,
01:43
the bird beams with radiance, like the sun.
01:46
And with all the negative space,
01:48
the creature in the centre feels like an emblem.
01:51
The owl meets your eye
01:53
with a wise and curious expression.
01:56
What is it's story?
01:57
And from whose imagination did this magical creature fly?
02:02
Kenojuak Ashevak was born in a camp
02:05
on the Southern coast of Baffin Island in 1927.
02:09
She grew up on the land, moving camp-to-camp
02:13
following the migration of food sources.
02:16
As a young mother, Ashevak was forced
02:18
to leave her family for three years
02:21
while receiving treatment for tuberculosis
02:23
in a Quebec hospital.
02:25
She began practicing art
02:27
and various crafts there as a pastime.
02:30
Later, on a trip into Cape Dorset,
02:33
today known by its Inuktitut name, Kinngait,
02:36
Ashevak met artist and civil servant James Houston.
02:40
Houston noticed the design she'd made
02:43
on her sealskin bag, a rabbit eating seaweed.
02:47
He gave her drawing supplies
02:49
and asked if she could sketch it for him.
02:53
In Kinngait, Houston introduced printmaking techniques
02:56
and the artists quickly adapted
02:58
and experimented with the art form,
03:00
making it their own.
03:02
He encouraged Ashevak to pursue graphic arts
03:05
at the new printmaking studio there.
03:08
She became the first woman to join.
03:11
In 1959, her piece, Rabbit Eating Seaweed,
03:14
was included in the very first series
03:17
of prints from Cape Dorset.
03:19
And the artist's work
03:20
was part of nearly every annual print series
03:23
until her death in 2013.
03:27
(gentle music)
03:28
To produce her prints, Ashevak's original drawings
03:31
were actually transferred to stone.
03:33
Then a printmaker chiseled the surface
03:35
away from the design,
03:36
and ink was applied to the cut stone.
03:39
Finally, the paper, brought from Southern Canada,
03:42
was pressed against the stone surface.
03:45
The Enchanted Owl was printed in two variations,
03:49
red and black, and also green and black.
03:52
NOEL: I'm wondering if the owl spoke to her
03:54
as, kind of, who she was.
03:56
You know, the owl sits and watches.
03:58
Is she an observer?
04:00
ANTOINETTE: When I looked at it, I can't really turn off
04:02
because it says something to me.
04:05
The eyes.
04:06
I love the eyes.
04:08
DEE: Because of the colours and the way that the feathers
04:11
are radiating from the owl,
04:13
it suggests to me power or some sort of vibrancy,
04:19
almost akin to the sun.
04:23
NARRATOR: Owls were a favourite subject for the artist.
04:25
She depicted the wise bird
04:27
in more than 100 different prints.
04:29
When she was asked why she drew
04:31
the creature this way for The Enchanted Owl,
04:33
Ashevak said that the owl drives away the darkness.
04:37
The artist was greatly inspired by the natural world,
04:40
the animals and flowers of her Arctic landscape.
04:43
She was not interested
04:44
in depicting these realistically, however.
04:47
They were filtered through her imagination
04:48
to make something that was, most importantly,
04:51
pleasing to her own eye.
04:53
(woman speaks Inuktitut)
04:58
Ashevak once said, "There is no word for art".
05:02
We say it is to transfer something
05:04
from the real to the unreal.
05:06
I am an owl and I am a happy owl.
05:10
I like to make people happy and everything happy.
05:13
I am the light of happiness and I am a dancing owl".
05:18
60 years ago, printmaking was not an Inuit tradition,
05:23
but today it is.
05:25
The project began from colonial roots.
05:28
Houston was employed by the federal government
05:30
to encourage the production
05:32
of carving and crafts in the north,
05:34
and to promote the sale of Inuit art in the south.
05:38
Kinngait's print shop was launched
05:40
as an economic development initiative,
05:42
but the artists there took ownership of the practice.
05:45
They have developed
05:46
their own distinct styles and narratives,
05:49
and they use a co-op model where members share profits.
05:53
Ashevak valued how art-making
05:55
helped support her family and her community.
05:59
Over time, art has become a major industry in Kinngait.
06:03
In fact, it's said to have more artists per capita
06:06
than any other community in Canada.
06:09
DON: I feel introducing print making
06:11
to these indigenous communities
06:13
was a great idea,
06:15
to get artwork from indigenous communities out there.
06:19
DARYL: I don't know many stories like that in Canada,
06:21
where the government funded art equipment
06:25
to help with economic development.
06:27
That seems very forward thinking to me.
06:30
NARRATOR: In recent decades,
06:32
Kinngait has produced notable talents
06:34
like Shuvinai Ashoona, with her vivid surrealist fantasies,
06:38
Annie Pootoogook, who made honest depictions
06:41
of everyday life in the north,
06:43
and the hunter artist, Tim Pitsiulak,
06:45
whose extraordinary drawings
06:47
express a deep respect for the natural world.
06:50
These artists continue to expand
06:52
the vision of Inuit art,
06:54
and new artists are always joining the studio
06:56
to learn the crafts of drawing and printmaking.
07:00
In 2018, Kinngait Studios
07:03
found a new home with the opening
07:05
of the Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop.
07:09
Hanging prominently there is The Enchanted Owl,
07:12
the most famous print by the artist
07:14
who helped Intuit art take flight.
07:17
Join us as we decode Canadian art
07:20
and understand why looking at art matters.
07:23
(gentle music)

See? Art isn’t so hard. You’ve just got to look a bit longer and ask yourself some simple questions. Wanna try another one?

We get such pleasure from building places out of humble materials! And if we succeed in confusing spectators, it’s absolute magic!” 

Canadassimo (Dépanneur)

Art collective BGL magically transports spectators with a playful installation that recreates the experience of a Quebecois dépanneur, or corner store.

TVO Arts - BGL, Canadassimo (Dépanneur)

00:01
[Music]
00:03
we've all seen art that imitates a
00:05
person or a place
00:06
but can art recreate an experience
00:10
this is canada
00:13
it was made by the quebec city art
00:15
collective beijel in 2015.
00:20
that year the group was selected to
00:21
represent canada at the veris biennale
00:25
it's kind of like the olympics of
00:26
contemporary art
00:29
there beigel totally transformed the
00:31
canadian pavilion
00:33
visitors had to enter through this
00:34
ordinary looking corner store
00:36
but what they found inside was puzzling
00:39
playful and anything but ordinary
00:43
i see familiarity
00:45
this is right on the corner of my street
00:48
very literally
00:49
brands i grew up with and even adverts
00:53
like exactly what you would expect when
00:54
you go in to that kind of corner store
00:57
super up north canada the products that
00:59
you find like the hickory sticks
01:00
barbecue chips it's very canadian like
01:03
it feels very commonplace so
01:06
it's not something you would immediately
01:08
think of as being shown in like one of
01:10
the world's greatest art shows
01:13
past the sandwich board and through the
01:15
door that jingles as you enter you'll
01:18
find an oddly familiar scene shelves
01:20
heaving with snack foods household
01:23
cleaners and canned goods racks
01:26
cluttered with magazines a fridge loaded
01:28
with soft drinks and beer
01:31
ads tempting you to try the weekly lotto
01:33
and a cash register ready to ring up
01:35
your purchases
01:37
inside the canadian pavilion beijiel
01:40
constructed a full-scale convenience
01:42
store it's what quebecers call a
01:44
depanure or sometimes just the depp
01:48
and beijiel's depth stocks hundreds and
01:51
hundreds of products
01:53
some known globally some mainly popular
01:55
in canada and some specific to quebec
01:58
the level of detail is incredible do you
02:01
notice the patterned vinyl floor
02:03
the security mirror the water damaged
02:06
ceiling or the owner's handmade signs
02:09
the store looks a bit shabby
02:12
beiji i'll call it cozy and low budget
02:16
it's meant to resemble an independent
02:18
family-owned business rather than a
02:20
slick corporate chain but a highly
02:22
realistic reproduction is the only thing
02:25
the playful trio had in store for
02:27
visitors
02:28
as you move toward the back of the shop
02:30
you'll notice something strange happens
02:33
the designs on the packages become
02:34
blurry and difficult to read
02:37
they look almost out of focus
02:40
we wanted to generate a surprise
02:42
we're hoping to surprise the public it
02:45
almost looks like it's a movie set or a
02:48
tv set where they're filming something
02:50
except the difference between this and a
02:52
movie set is you can see all the brands
02:54
there's something
02:56
a little bit jarring about that i guess
02:58
the thing that jumps out at me is just
03:00
i'm a little confused by it
03:03
so who's responsible for building this
03:05
most perplexing scene
03:08
beigel was an art collective that began
03:10
in 1996 at laval university and was
03:13
active until 2021
03:17
the moniker comes from their surnames
03:19
jasmine biledo sebastian jiger and
03:23
nicholas levaldiere
03:26
the trio follows in the great tradition
03:28
of canadian artist collectives which
03:30
includes groups like general idea
03:33
fast worms
03:34
and asuma
03:36
working together the three artists found
03:38
a whimsical prankster-ish energy
03:42
they also discovered they were more
03:43
effective as a team
03:45
we had more fun and i would even think
03:48
it was easier to produce great two
03:51
friends than by myself a lot easier and
03:54
a lot funnier
03:57
the group worked primarily in
03:59
performance and installation
04:02
installation art describes large-scale
04:04
constructions made from a mixture of
04:06
materials often designed for a specific
04:09
place or time
04:12
the collective is known for their
04:14
giant-sized immersive installations that
04:16
play with the experience of the
04:18
spectator
04:21
no one would ever call beggiel's work
04:23
stuffy or inaccessible
04:26
their art is funny spectacular even yet
04:30
it addresses serious issues
04:32
like consumerism
04:34
and the environment
04:35
[Music]
04:36
recycling and repurposing were always
04:38
key to the way they made
04:40
art the group once said recycling
04:44
enables us to find things that already
04:46
show where
04:47
that have patina a color
04:49
a smell
04:50
a poetry
04:52
in some instances like de panner they
04:55
used recognizable manufactured objects
04:57
as their building blocks
04:59
it's similar to the way marcel deschamps
05:01
took a real porcelain urinal and
05:04
presented it as sculpture
05:06
or how andy warhol obsessed over the
05:08
packaging of soup cans and scouring pads
05:12
ideas that challenged what art even is
05:16
only here the everyday objects have been
05:18
multiplied by the hundreds
05:21
i think it's a wonderful idea i mean
05:23
it's like finding beauty in things that
05:25
are maybe not traditionally beautiful
05:27
it's so hard to purposely make something
05:31
look like an original thing that someone
05:33
would just make by themselves i would
05:34
say it's so realistic to the point that
05:37
it's almost too realistic once you take
05:39
it out of the gallery i don't know if it
05:40
has the same value when beijiel first
05:43
visited the giardini in venice where the
05:45
biennale was held they thought the
05:47
canadian pavilion looked like a service
05:49
station
05:51
that's where the idea to make a shop
05:53
came from
05:54
the trio purchased displays shelving and
05:57
an old fridge from a depth near their
05:58
studio that had recently gone out of
06:00
business
06:03
their stores scruffy wooden walls thick
06:05
with paint came from an old country
06:08
house that was set to be demolished
06:11
they chose these items because they
06:13
showed age and use
06:15
the snack foods and household products
06:17
were bought new but many of the cans and
06:20
packages needed to be emptied stuffed
06:22
and resealed before shipping
06:25
beigial also manipulated some of the
06:27
product labels by scanning the packages
06:29
modifying their image then printing and
06:32
reapplying the labels
06:35
to make the experience feel even more
06:37
real bezierelle piped the noises of an
06:40
old refrigerator and fluorescent
06:42
lighting into the installation space
06:46
all of ganedecimal filled three 40-foot
06:49
shipping containers
06:51
the whole store was assembled first in
06:53
quebec city then taken apart and shipped
06:56
to venice in segments
06:59
beijiel surprises the visitor who finds
07:01
themselves not in a typical gallery
07:03
environment
07:04
but zapped into the isles of a dependent
07:08
visitors in venice were transported to
07:10
the average street corner in quebec
07:14
although there are convenience stores
07:16
all around the world the depanel's
07:18
particular mix of languages products and
07:21
symbols creates a very specific
07:23
experience of place
07:25
representing canada in venice it also
07:27
recognizes the role of french canadian
07:29
culture within our national identity
07:32
for many it will be familiar but also
07:34
unfamiliar
07:37
depending on where you're from the
07:39
languages might be foreign the snacks
07:42
different and the brands unrecognizable
07:44
but for some it will be an experience of
07:47
home
07:50
if you're a baker or canadian and you
07:53
have been a defender for sure when you
07:55
pass the door the smell the sound and
07:59
all the object there you like came back
08:02
back home like very fast and then oh wow
08:05
it's rare in contemporary raw art
08:09
what then should we make of all those
08:11
blurry packages
08:13
vegiel calls the effect cinematic
08:16
but when asked why they did it
08:18
the group doesn't give a straight answer
08:21
they themselves are blurry about the
08:23
reason
08:24
textbook beijiel trickery
08:27
it's almost as if the near perfect
08:29
simulation of the dip has begun to
08:31
glitch
08:33
it causes you to question the experience
08:36
they make you think twice about the
08:38
everyday world that's around you
08:41
like so much of beijing's work depending
08:44
is funny the artists want you to laugh
08:47
at their art
08:48
bezierelle says there's so much content
08:51
clamoring for our attention
08:53
humor is one way to get people to take
08:55
notice
08:57
when you have that kind of emotion of
08:59
all smiling or you have another souvenir
09:03
of this experience i guess and this
09:07
is a bit important because our life just
09:10
the collection of souvenirs
09:13
the experience was so unusual so
09:16
striking that visitors asked if they
09:18
could buy a souvenir from the depanure
09:21
the maple syrup especially
09:23
but in giving visitors a smile a memory
09:26
and creating a vivid experience
09:28
beijiel sends everyone home with a
09:30
souvenir you can't just buy in any store
09:35
join us as we decode canadian art and
09:37
understand why looking at art
09:40
matters
09:41
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09:53
[Music]
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWhxkKlXKc&ab_channel=NationalGalleryofCanadahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWhxkKlXKc&ab_channel=NationalGalleryofCanada