State of Grace

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Lori Blondeau, “Are You My Mother?” 2018

performance documentation (courtesy of the artist)

A powerful mid-career survey, Grace, by celebrated Cree/Saulteaux/Métis artist Lori Blondeau not only recognizes her past work and accomplishments, but also generates excitement for the future. Curated by Leah Taylor for the College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan, it includes video, photography and performance ephemera.

Blondeau’s primary artistic medium is her own body. But even when she is not in the gallery, a palpable sense of her presence remains. Audio, video, an interview with the artist produced for the exhibition, and even the lingering scent of poplar, bring the viewer into direct communion with her.

The exhibition opened with a restaging of Are you my mother? a piece Blondeau first performed in 2002 as a way to process her mother’s experiences at residential school. The original performance was highly personal and the artist’s mother asked her to stop midway, prompting Blondeau to create an alternative ending. Since that first showing, Blondeau has continued to work and rework the piece. She describes this latest iteration as less about retelling trauma and more a celebration of her mother’s strength and survival.

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Lori Blondeau, “Are You My Mother?” 2018

performance documentation (courtesy of the artist, photo by Troy Gronsdahl)

Elements remaining from the performance are presented as an installation, which becomes a monument to that strength. A six-foot fence encloses a grassy area in front of a chair, where the artist sat to carve, and a mound of poplar peelings. The red dress she wore during the performance hangs nearby. There’s also audio of Blondeau describing her conversations with her mother about residential school. Flanking the chair and the dress are projected images of Queen Victoria and Pocahontas. These spectres of colonial ideals seem flimsy compared to the presence of the artist’s mother evoked through the material remnants of the performance.

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Lori Blondeau, “Asinîy Iskwew,” 2016

photograph (courtesy of the artist)

Blondeau often satirizes, reworks and remakes colonial stereotypes of Indigenous women. In earlier works like Cosmosquaw, 1996, and The Lonely Surfer Squaw, 1997, she cloaks herself in these stereotypes. But in recent works like Pakwâciwâpisk, 2017, Asinîy Iskwew, 2016, and in the latest staging of Are you my mother? Blondeau re-presents Indigenous women. She creates new monuments, images of Indigenous women as strong, powerful, resilient, aspirational and permanent.

A survey is often seen as a look backward, but many elements here undermine that interpretation. In a printed interview with Troy Gronsdahl that viewers can take away, Blondeau talks about creating work after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, specifically the restaging of Are you my mother?

When you think about her most recent works, you can see an artist freed from the responsibilities of offering basic representations and truths. Now that all of Blondeau’s audiences have a common baseline, she is able to go deeper in her work. ■

Grace is on view at the College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon from June 11 to Aug. 31, 2018. Asinîy Iskwew was also part of Resilience, a national billboard project curated by Lee-Ann Martin.