2008 / HIVE 2, Magnetic North Theatre Festival, Centre for Digital Media, Vancouver, BC
In this visceral performance, Rebecca Belmore constructs a dress from newspaper and honey. The seated figure (Daina Warren) recalls Queen Victoria, and the act of constructing a structure around her from newspaper makes a statement about the role of the printed word as a vehicle for domination and control.
Glenn Alteen, Extract: Text Works from the Archive, grunt gallery, 2008
Video credit: Elisha Burrows
Photo credit: Harold Coego
Category: Performances
Painted Road
2007 / Gravel road behind the Art Gallery of Sudbury, ON
Handprints can be temporal, as in Rebecca’s unique performances, or material, as in the installations. Some performances have left artifacts such as a dress. Her homage to the legendary Odawa artist Daphne Odjig has left a memory as well as a document of a poetic allegory of strife and hope. Performing is a central feature in Rebecca’s work, and her audacious feminine power in Painted Road resonates with her amplified breathing and the heart-wrenching, raw humanity inspired by Daphne’s 1973 painting From Earth Flows the River of Life. The baggage of catastrophe that comes from performing outdoors was evident on this occasion. The cold and drizzle of late autumn connected with the mythological associations of the impending storm. Drama. Anticipation. With Daphne warmed inside a car and with the headlights on. Rebecca revealed a tableau vivant. Miked, and with bags of red oxide, she demonstrated an endurance that became a factor in her artifice, the weather bringing the four directions, the viewers seeing her incredible determination. For me, it was a tour de force of creative energy and inspiration, like that so eloquently penned by Paul McCartney in The Long Winding Road.
Robert Houle, Interiority as Allegory, Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2008
Photo credit: Michael Belmore
Handprints can be temporal, as in Rebecca’s unique performances, or material, as in the installations. Some performances have left artifacts such as a dress. Her homage to the legendary Odawa artist Daphne Odjig has left a memory as well as a document of a poetic allegory of strife and hope. Performing is a central feature in Rebecca’s work, and her audacious feminine power in Painted Road resonates with her amplified breathing and the heart-wrenching, raw humanity inspired by Daphne’s 1973 painting From Earth Flows the River of Life. The baggage of catastrophe that comes from performing outdoors was evident on this occasion. The cold and drizzle of late autumn connected with the mythological associations of the impending storm. Drama. Anticipation. With Daphne warmed inside a car and with the headlights on. Rebecca revealed a tableau vivant. Miked, and with bags of red oxide, she demonstrated an endurance that became a factor in her artifice, the weather bringing the four directions, the viewers seeing her incredible determination. For me, it was a tour de force of creative energy and inspiration, like that so eloquently penned by Paul McCartney in The Long Winding Road.
Robert Houle, Interiority as Allegory, Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2008
Photo credit: Michael Belmore
Making Always War
2008 / Frederic Lasserre Building courtyard, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
Working for forty-five minutes, using a salvaged piece of west coast timber, buckets of sand from nearby Spanish Banks, six Desert Storm shirts purchased from an army surplus store, a hammer, some nails, and the sound of pow-wow music emanating from my truck, I set out to make, to build, to destroy, and to raise my thoughts about war. Driving nails through the camouflage fabric and into what used to be a majestic tree—I assaulted, soothed and shaped a personal version of a memorial pole with the setting sun and then working in the headlights of my own vehicle… making, making always war.
Making Always War: Rebecca Belmore, Stride Gallery, 2008
Photo credit: Oker Chen
Working for forty-five minutes, using a salvaged piece of west coast timber, buckets of sand from nearby Spanish Banks, six Desert Storm shirts purchased from an army surplus store, a hammer, some nails, and the sound of pow-wow music emanating from my truck, I set out to make, to build, to destroy, and to raise my thoughts about war. Driving nails through the camouflage fabric and into what used to be a majestic tree—I assaulted, soothed and shaped a personal version of a memorial pole with the setting sun and then working in the headlights of my own vehicle… making, making always war.
Making Always War: Rebecca Belmore, Stride Gallery, 2008
Photo credit: Oker Chen
Clay on Stone
2016 / Nuit Blanche and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
Clay on Stone was a performance that took place overnight during Nuit Blanche, Toronto and as part of Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971-1989 curated by Wanda Nanibush at the Art Gallery of Ontario. A twelve-hour performance, from sunset to sunrise, where the artist covers the stone floor of the Walker Court with clay by hand. Initially writing the words “land”, “water”, and “breathe”, Belmore eventually obscures the texts, creating an abstract painting that covers the entire floor.
Wanda Nanibush, ed., Facing the Monumental: Rebecca Belmore, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2016
Photo credit: Sam Javanrouh / Nuit Blanche Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario
Clay on Stone was a performance that took place overnight during Nuit Blanche, Toronto and as part of Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971-1989 curated by Wanda Nanibush at the Art Gallery of Ontario. A twelve-hour performance, from sunset to sunrise, where the artist covers the stone floor of the Walker Court with clay by hand. Initially writing the words “land”, “water”, and “breathe”, Belmore eventually obscures the texts, creating an abstract painting that covers the entire floor.
Wanda Nanibush, ed., Facing the Monumental: Rebecca Belmore, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2016
Photo credit: Sam Javanrouh / Nuit Blanche Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario
Tent City
2003 / Chiasma, LIVE Biennial of Performance Art Festival, grunt gallery, Vancouver, BC
Belmore’s video collage addresses issues of homelessness, poverty, and hunger in the midst of a thriving and prosperous city. The title refers to a temporary city of tents erected by Vancouver’s homeless in protest to welfare cuts and regulations designed to further marginalize the poor. Actions such as collecting bottles, washing feet, and ripping open packets of ketchup to pour on french fries spread in the mud take on ritual significance as they are juxtaposed with scenes of the tents and reflections of the city in pools of muddy water. At the edge of the tent city is a sign that declares to the world, “This is the other Canada The poor, now in your face!”
Daina Warren, Tent City, grunt gallery, 2006
Photo credit: Merle Addison / grunt gallery
Belmore’s video collage addresses issues of homelessness, poverty, and hunger in the midst of a thriving and prosperous city. The title refers to a temporary city of tents erected by Vancouver’s homeless in protest to welfare cuts and regulations designed to further marginalize the poor. Actions such as collecting bottles, washing feet, and ripping open packets of ketchup to pour on french fries spread in the mud take on ritual significance as they are juxtaposed with scenes of the tents and reflections of the city in pools of muddy water. At the edge of the tent city is a sign that declares to the world, “This is the other Canada The poor, now in your face!”
Daina Warren, Tent City, grunt gallery, 2006
Photo credit: Merle Addison / grunt gallery
Performances
Performances