Learn how to decode Canadian art | TVO Arts

The incredible diversity of Canada shines through our art. Meet diverse Canadian artists from the past and present and 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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Once you identify all the puzzle pieces, you can start to see how they fit together. 

Anyone who loves science fiction also loves the world, our world.

This artist’s sci-fi heroes celebrate the strength of people who leave home to find a better future.

TVO Arts - Rajni Perera, Traveller #5

Narrator (00:02):
Art gives us the power to imagine the future in any way we want. This is "Traveller 5". It was created in 2019 by the multidisciplinary artist, Rajni Perera. It's a standout piece from one of her best known bodies of work called Traveller, which imagines super humans from a future time after climate catastrophe. It questions, who will be alive after the world has burned? What will they look like and how might they learn to not only survive such harsh conditions but thrive in them? Though it may sound like the stuff of science fiction, it's a parallel story for the artist and many like her, who also had to travel a long way from home in the face of hardship.
Arianne (00:53):
It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. I love the colors. It's giving me some kind of South Asian feel.
Amy (01:04):
I like how the body or the costume is built out of different styles of textile kind of match together.
Ulrik (01:10):
It took me a little while to realize the number of eyes this person seems to have, including what seems to be like an eye for a mouth. So there's obviously something going on there...
Narrator (01:20):
Standing in half length. Portrait "Traveller 5" shows an androgynous humanoid figure. The curious character has seven eyes, each with a strange star shaped pupil draped in jewelry and richly patterned textiles. They look distinguished, regal. Even Perera refers to the character's attire as 'ancestral armor'; a kind of magical technology developed over centuries to protect the traveller from inhospitable conditions. Their intricate designs may look familiar.
Rajni Perera (Artist) (01:54):
The way it comes together is from things I've seen in real life, going to fabric shops, going to sari shops, looking at linga suits and salwar kameez and how the shawl is paired with the set of earrings and bengals that go with all of it. That's how I learned to dress, and that's the way I dress the travellers today.
Narrator (02:17):
The Traveller poses in front of a stately domed structure. A nod to the Unbuilt Cenotaph for the father of physics, sir Isaac Newton, designed by 18th century architect Ettiene-Louis Boullé. You'll notice the Traveller holds a mysterious striped sphere roughly the same shape as the building behind the artist calls the traveler's orb a 'portal' and like the revolutionary work of Newton, it represents a paradigm shift — a brand new way of thinking about the world.
Jim (02:51):
I like that it's kind of challenged my preconceptions about what technology should look like.
Amy (02:56):
It's reminding me specifically of manuscripts and how tiny and detailed how fine that kind of work is.
Ulrik (03:02):
Definitely sort of a sci-fi element to it. There seems to be some real different cultures kind of involved in it.
Narrator (03:09):
Rajni Perera was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1985. She grew up in a mixed Buddhist and Hindu community and as a small child, her parents had young Rajni's astrological chart read. It said that in multiple past lives she was an artist.
Rajni Perera (Artist) (03:27):
So my parents always knew that I would be an artist and I always knew that I would be an artist, and I've been drawing and painting since I was a baby and a toddler.
Narrator (03:34):
Perera and her family moved to Australia, then the United States before settling in Canada when Rajni was nine. They lived in North York and Scarborough, and later she attended art school at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. Initially, the enterprising young artist organized her own exhibitions and brokered her own sales building, both a business and a following from scratch. But it wasn't long before curators and gallerists came calling intrigued by her powerful artistic voice commissioned by the Royal Bank of Canada. "Traveller 5" was the artist's first major acquisition by an institution. Their curator called it a reminder of how our choices now impact generations to come.
(04:22):
Growing up in Sri Lanka, it was television shows like Astroboy and RoboTech that captured young Perera's imagination. She was drawn to their epic stories, beautifully rendered and full of unique mythology. And throughout her career, science fiction has been at the heart of Perera's work.
Rajni Perera (Artist) (04:40):
Science fiction does a lot of incredible things. It prophesizes, it theorizes...
Arianne (04:46):
Between science fiction and straight up fantasy, that's pretty much the only world that you can pretty much make up,
Ulrik (04:54):
It allows us to view the future in a different way or the way we either want to view it or need to view it. Right, and I think she does that.
Narrator (05:01):
As she got older, Perera developed a more critical lens in all the stories of space fairing and off-worlding that she loved. She was disappointed to so rarely find herself, her family or her friends reflected in them. The authors of science fiction were predominantly white and so were its heroes.
Rajni Perera (Artist) (05:20):
I was really, really missing where we are in science fiction.
Narrator (05:26):
During art school, she made it her mission to bring science fiction into fine art and to paint about the lives of brown and black people through this lens.
(05:36):
Today, Pereira is known as a visionary creator of iconography, artifacts, and mythology, imagining the future of immigrants and other marginalized communities. Her Traveller series features more than 50 artworks and includes painting, mixed media, photography, sculpture, and wearable art. Within the artist's distinct sci-fi universe, she calls upon a tapestry of other visual inspirations as well, including scientific illustration, psychedelia and miniatures, such as Rajput and Mughal painting. These small, highly detailed illustrations from the 16th to 19th century often used to decorate manuscripts are important non-Western representations of human activity.
(06:22):
For Perera, just as keenly as she mixes influences, she combines techniques too. Traveler number five is an example of 'mixed media'. The term describes artworks composed from a combination of different materials. This piece uses acrylic, gouache, gel pens, pencil, charcoal, graphite, chalk and watercolor, whatever's necessary. Perera says she calls her process results oriented. She works spontaneously using whatever tool, technique or material will achieve the results she wants.
Amy (07:01):
I guess she sees the strengths of these peoples and their adaptability being the kind of factor that has them surviving the apocalypse.
Jim (07:12):
A story of immigration, I guess, landing in somewhere strange and learning how to live and how to thrive.
Narrator (07:18):
Across the Traveller series, Perera likens the classic sci-fi narrative of off world survival to the experience of the immigrant. It's the story of resilience, of resourcefulness, of creating abundance from nothing, and it's a story she knows intimately because she is herself a traveller, leaving home with her family when she was small to make a better life. Through her personal experience, she's developed a special reference for the things people bring with them from home, the garments, jewelry, the prayer mats, the stuff that makes them feel comforted and helps them to express themselves and their culture. These items function as a sort of armour. Perera says they offer a form of protection when you go from one place to another.
Rajni Perera (Artist) (08:07):
If you think of the idea of a force field and then wrapping yourself in something from back home, that's going to protect you from having to fully deal with what can be a very difficult place. That's the way that I thought about that. I thought about armor for the Traveller series,
Narrator (08:29):
The Traveller's ancestral armor — the magical technology that keeps them safe in harsh environments — references exactly this sense of tradition, cultural knowledge and history that can be bound up in our clothing and can become a source of great strength for its wearer. Their seven-eyed mutation likewise points to the Traveller's superpowered strength and resilience. While mutations are often framed as something ugly or repulsive, Perera makes them a mark of beauty, a sign that the traveler is perfectly adapted to their surroundings.
Rajni Perera (Artist) (09:04):
For me, a mutation is a protest act of an organism that's alive, saying, no, I'm going to live. I'm not going to die. I'm going to live. I'm going to expand my capacity for survival in this really sneaky, gorgeous, and beautiful ways.
Narrator (09:21):
Her next body of work is focused completely on the idea of surveying the living world, the flora and fauna that surrounds the travelers. What will plants and animals look like after a climate catastrophe? How will they mutate, evolve and adapt to survive?
(09:37):
Although Pereira's vision feels like a distant future, it's the world that may not be so far away. It is expected that anywhere from 140 million to 1 billion climate migrants will be on the move by 2050, particularly from South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Despite the impending crisis, Perera's picture of the future with her noble and heroic traveler posed proudly is fiercely optimistic. There will be survivors and there will be people who learn to thrive. She's not just hopeful. She is adamant.
Rajni Perera (Artist) (10:15):
I insist on victory, I insist on victory in this story.
Narrator (10:24):
Join us as we decode Canadian art and understand why looking at art matters.

Traveller 5

When you look closely, ask questions and take your time, the artwork begins to speak to you differently.

My only strength is finding something where most people would find nothing.

One of Canada’s most beloved painters reveals the wonder and significance hiding within the ordinary domestic life of cooking, cleaning and, of course, making jellies.

TVO Arts - Mary Pratt, Jelly Shelf 

Narrator (00:02):
Art can help us to see the meaning and magic that's hidden all around us.
(00:07):
This is "Jelly Shelf". It is one of the best known works by painter Mary Pratt, who was recognized as one of Canada's greatest artists and also something of a feminist icon. It was painted in 1999, and it's been shown in galleries all over the country. It's even been on a stamp. But what is it about this simple domestic scene that's captured our imagination so vividly?
Alex (00:31):
So I see a bunch of jars and I can't really tell what's in them, but my first instinct is to say, jam.
Julia (00:39):
Although it's food, I see light and warmth.
Uju (00:43):
Is this a photograph or is it like a painting?
Narrator (00:46):
Although it looks so real, you can almost taste it. "Jelly Shelf" is an oil painting. Four glass jars of differently colored jellies rest on a shiny surface. It captures the fleeting moments when sunlight passing through. The jellies sets the container spectacularly a glow like colored lanterns without a trace of brushwork. The painting looks like a picture from a glossy magazine. Its sharp foreground and hazy out of focus background resembles the way a camera sees like a photograph with a shallow depth of field. Perhaps those containers of jelly remind you of something or maybe someone.
Christian (01:23):
I recognize those jars. They seem like they are part of my family history or something I know from my mother's shelves as something I know from my grandmother's shelves.
Uju (01:36):
So the first thing I think of looking at this is home, and I mean home. Not in the sense of house, but in the sense of comfort, in the sense of belonging.
Narrator (01:47):
Pratt was born Mary Francis West in Frederickton, New Brunswick in 1935. Her mother hand coloured photographs a hobby. She also taught to her children. From a young age, Mary learned to pay careful attention to the whole spectrum of colors. You can see learning that hidden and even the most familiar things are shades you'd never have expected. A closer look can reveal all sorts of little surprises.
(02:12):
At the age of 18, she began studying fine arts at Mount Allison University. Her teachers included celebrated painter, Alex Coleville and Lawren Phillips Harris, son of one of the group of seven founders. It was there that Mary met Christopher Pratt, a student who was also interested in painting and who would become her husband. Just a few years later, after the couple married and began having children, they both returned to Mount Allison to continue their studies. That's when Harris, Mary's teacher told her, "you have to understand in a family of painters, there can only be one painter and in your family, it's Christopher".
(02:50):
She took his words as a challenge, but with four kids in a home to look after, Mary found that raising children and housework left little time her own painting. While Christopher, with his mysterious brand of smoothly rendered realism, saw his career skyrocket, hers, stagnated.
(03:09):
Then in the late 1960s, Mary experienced two sparks of inspiration that would ignite her unique artistic voice. One fall morning, she was struck by the gorgeous light falling upon their unmade bed. The scene was so charged that she said it felt like a punch in the gut. In that moment, she decided that's what she would paint scenes from her everyday life that demanded a closer look.
(03:35):
Not long after a second spark would determine her process. At the sight of the family's cluttered dinner table, Mary got that same gut feeling and sprang up to grab her sketching tools. Christopher pointed out the light was fading quickly. She'd never sketched it in time. So he quietly fetched his camera and photographed the supper table, giving her the pictures as slides. Once they were developed for Mary, the photographic slides were a game changer full of tiny details I might miss. Photography enabled her to save the fleeting moments so she could vividly recreate them and paint long after they had passed.
(04:12):
For the entirety of her five decade long career. She worked in this way to capture those charged scenes from her daily life gaining national renowned for her, highly realistic still lifes that invited the viewer into her home. Of course, many artists use photographs as reference, but it's what Pratt did with the photos that made her work so special.
Mary Pratt (Artist) (04:33):
I go and get my camera and I photograph what is saying to me. Paint me. I'm important. I don't ever want to be forgotten.
Narrator (04:42):
Slides allowed her to project the photograph onto her canvas and trace the image directly painting in the basic elements of the picture. She then used small sable brushes, typically for watercolor painting, and worked in tiny crosshatch strokes, applying color from the top corner of the canvas to the bottom. She would build up the painting like this layer after layer until it achieved a lifelike appearance. The accumulation of such fine layers made her brush strokes virtually invisible As she painted, she referenced a slide viewer, a device that both enlarged and illuminated the original photograph, which perhaps explains why her paintings often appear to glow.
Andre (05:23):
She definitely has a great eye for detail and making sure to capture every single thing that she sees.
Alex (05:30):
I feel like with a painting, you can adjust the light much easier. You can change the colors much more. You can add colors to it.
Christian (05:38):
It's got to be a labour of love to be able to spend that much time painting a piece of painting a fish on a piece. Plastic wrap.
Narrator (05:47):
Pratt is often associated with a genre of art known as 'photorealism', emerging in the 1960s. 'Photorealism' is a style that represents subject in an accurate and detailed way, like a photograph. There's a long tradition of Canadian realist painters from Pratt's day right to the present. But beyond a likeness to her source photograph. What Pratt strove to capture was the original feeling that the scene inspired that magic spark that made her grab her camera in the first place.
(06:18):
Pratt's work can also be understood as an example of 'social realism', art that comments on contemporary social, political, or economic conditions in a realistic manner. Her paintings made visible, the often unrecognized work of a woman caring for her children, her husband, and their home. Because of this close lens, she applied to her daily life, Pratt became a hero to women across the country. She was a woman succeeding in a field dominated by men, while also raising a family. Meanwhile, her subject matter, the cooking, the cleaning illustrated, the uneven workload women bore at home.
(06:55):
Though this housework gap has narrowed since the 1960s, it's a problem that persists. One nationwide survey found that on average, Canadian women still do over 50% more unpaid work around the house than men, which may explain why Pratt's depictions of these small everyday moments carry such tremendous power even today. And why beneath the beauty on their surface, you may feel a slight barb.
Uju (07:21):
This is what it meant to have and maintain a household. It meant making the bed. It meant preparing dinner and tidying up after dinner. It meant canning in the fall and preserving right.
Andre (07:31):
Maybe there's more to this. Maybe she might be talking about something being caged in those jars.
Christian (07:39):
Ordinary people are doing meaningful things every day of their lives. It's the memory of how much work and care went into making these things that are sitting on the shelf.
Narrator (07:52):
Pratt considered a dish full of jelly one of the most beautiful things she could look at. The fascination began in childhood when her mother would keep jars of jelly on the kitchen window sill. They reminded her of the stained glass at church — an almost divine sort of beauty. But as Pratt began making jelly herself, she understood that they weren't only beautiful, but that they required a lot of work too. Jellies came to represent both joy and sacrifice for Pratt captured together in a jar.
(08:23):
Pratt once said her only strength was finding something where most people would find nothing. She made an extraordinary art practice from looking and thinking closely about the ordinary things that passed through her hands every day. The fish she prepared, the bread she baked, the home she had made within those seemingly mundane tasks. She showed us the whole range of human emotions and experiences: joy and suffering, beauty and repulsion, life and death.
Mary Pratt (Artist) (08:51):
Well, I think with my work, even things that are ordinary are not ordinary because I don't really believe that anything's ordinary. I think everything is complex and worthy of conjecture and worthy of a look, worthy of a close look. But I believe that 'just' stuff informed you and that you could imagine the secrets of the universe by looking at a pile of grapes,
Narrator (09:24):
A pile of grapes — or maybe a jar full of jelly.
(09:33):
Join us as we decode Canadian art and understand why looking at art matters.


Jelly Shelf

Sometimes, when you learn the story behind the art, you can appreciate it even more. Shall we try another? 


Falling is everywhere … We fall in love, we fall into depression, we fall asleep. And then there's this whole aspect of once we've fallen, putting ourselves back together.

Decades in the making, The Robotic Chair is a touching artwork about resilience — and a project which also took incredible resilience, collaboration and some playfulness to create.

TVO Arts - Max Dean, Raffaello D'Andrea, Matt Donovan, The Robotic Chair

Narrator (00:02):
Art shows us that the impossible can become possible. Sometimes it just takes a little perseverance. This is "The Robotic Chair". It was created by Max Dean, Raffaello D'Andrea and Matt Donovan built between 1984 and 2006. That's more than 20 years in the making. There are actually several chairs in existence, and they've delighted viewers all over the world. Although it may look like the most ordinary chair, it teaches us a deeply human lesson about falling and getting back up.
Nikola (00:44):
I saw a chair break down, smash and start to rise a little bit and reassemble itself, reorganizing its pieces.
Claudia (00:57):
Standing back up is the first thing that came to mind as I was trying to understand all these pieces that were deconstructing and then putting themselves back together.
Narrator (01:08):
It looks like a generic wooden chair, the kind you'd find in a classroom or a waiting room. But without notice, the seat collapses to the floor with a thunderous crash throwing its pieces across the platform. Then slowly, almost magically, "The Robotic Chair" puts itself back together from collapse to complete reassembly. The performance takes between five and 15 minutes.
(01:32):
"The Robotic Chair" is an example of kinetic sculpture from the Greek word kinesis for movement. Kinetic sculpture is a three dimensional artwork in which motion plays an important part in the sculpture's design. Kinetic sculpture might move naturally, such as this wind powered artwork, or with help from a person or a machine like "The Robotic Chair" Many examples of kinetic art draw comparisons between mechanical actions and the human body. Despite all the gears and circuitry, we can see something about ourselves reflected in them.
Claudia (02:05):
You immediately establish a connection because it's something that is not supposed to do what it's doing, and it's something you've probably never seen before.
Nikola (02:15):
After it had fallen apart and the seat seemed to rise up a little bit, almost like it was surveying itself, that's when the chair seemed alive.
Narrator (02:27):
"The Robotic Chair" is a collaboration between three very different artists. Max Dean was born in 1949. As a child, he immigrated from England to Canada with his family settling in Vancouver.
Max Dean (Artist) (02:39):
I wanted to be an artist when I was a kid, when I was a teen, but I never thought that I could be an artist, right? Because I thought I needed to know how to draw and paint, and it was only when I got to university that I realized or was told that visual arts was about the history of ideas, and I thought, oh, I can use ideas.
Narrator (02:59):
Today. Dean is a celebrated artist with notable works in photography, performance, installation, and kinetic art. Since childhood, he has experienced seizures. So risk collapse and re composure are themes he regularly explores through his art.
Max Dean (Artist) (03:17):
Much of my art has been about taking control. When are we or when do we lose control of our body, and how do we maintain that? So a chair that falls apart unannounced anyone is just like me having a seizure.
Narrator (03:31):
In fact, it's been suggested that "The Robotic Chair" can be understood as a portrait of the artist.
(03:38):
Raffaello D'Andrea is another one of the brains behind the chair. Born in 1967, D'Andrea is an inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, and new media artist. He has been called a pioneer in the field of robotics, co-founding the company that invented Amazon's famous mobile warehouse robots and leading the Cornell Robot soccer team to four World Championships.
(04:03):
Completing the chair's creative trio is Matt Donovan, born in 1974. Donovan is a Toronto-based artist and industrial designer. He's best known for conceptual works, as well as these intricate 2D and 3D mosaics made out of Lego.
(04:18):
Together, the three would fulfill an idea that for decades seemed impossible. Dean had been thinking about a teacher's chair as an artistic subject since the early 1970s. I
Max Dean (Artist) (04:29):
Like to use objects that people know, so there's not this kind of need to introduce them to something new. We already have some experience or a considerable amount of experience with the chair.
Narrator (04:39):
It was in 1984 that he got the idea for a chair that could fall apart and put itself back together, and he began its development the following year as an artist in residence at the National Museum of Science and Technology. In this earliest build, a robotic arm housed in the seat of the chair, was designed to collect the scattered components and slot them back into place. But with a number of technical challenges unresolved, the piece wasn't yet functional.
(05:06):
Over the next 10 years or so, Dean tinkered with the concept off and on, but a working model evaded him. It wasn't until Dean began to collaborate with D'Andrea on another project, and Donovan joined the studio that his tough to crack idea finally came to life.
Matt Donovan (Artist) (05:22):
My first reaction to "The Robotic Chair" was sort of like, this is impossible. There's no way we're going to do this.
Raffaello D'Andrea (Artist) (05:30):
I thought that it'd be quite striking to see something do that. Then the engineering perspective kicked in, and I realized that it would be extremely difficult to make something like that for various reasons.
Narrator (05:42):
D'Andrea suggested abandoning the robotic arm in favor of a mobile robot hidden in the seat that could dock with the other components. The idea was similar to the kind of technology he was using in his warehouse robots.
Raffaello D'Andrea (Artist) (05:55):
Whenever something required intelligence, I always thought about can it be even more intelligent if it moved? So trying to pose the problem of making a self assembling chair as a problem of creating a mobile robot that did it was kind of natural given what I had been working on after that time.
Matt Donovan (Artist) (06:16):
It was the moment that Raf mentioned that idea that I was like, that was the Eureka moment.
(06:22):
D'Andrea wrote the algorithms that would allow the chair to fall apart, find its pieces, and then move them back into place. Donovan crafted its mechanical design and handled its fabrication, making sure it was tough enough to collapse thousands of times over, yet still look like an ordinary chair. The bulk of the machinery would be hidden away inside its seat, including 14 motors, mechanical joints, a wireless radio wheels, a battery pack, and various electronic components.
(06:52):
Prototyping began in 2003 and was completed in 2006. "The Robotic Chair" premiered in Toronto that summer, and later that year, the artwork received an honorary mention at Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, where the award presenter said, the chair makes us believe again in the power of magic.
Raffaello D'Andrea (Artist) (07:11):
For me, "The Robotic Chair" really is an attempt, and it's an illusion to make time flow backwards to make the laws of physics go in a direction that they're not supposed to go.
Max Dean (Artist) (07:24):
When the chair stood for the first time like that, it was like we were blown away, and you just sit there in awe and you go like, wow, we did it
Phyllis (07:32):
On the outside. It sounds really simple, but to learn about the struggle and all the collaboration and the hard work that goes into programming something like this, that's almost a feat in itself.
Narrator (07:44):
Of course, art and technology have always been intertwined. Artists invent technologies and discover new applications. It's been said that artists humanize technology by engaging with it from a human perspective, although it's sometimes divorced from the worlds of science, technology, engineering, and math art emphasizes the importance of play and creativity in problem solving and decision making.
Raffaello D'Andrea (Artist) (08:08):
There's a famous quote saying, science is about discovering the world that is, and engineering is creating the world that never was. Art is like that too. Art and engineering share a lot of that act of creation
Narrator (08:21):
In "The Robotic Chair" art and technology meet as the means to realize an idea. How else could the creators make this inanimate object seem to have a life of its own?
Max Dean (Artist) (08:32):
A performance of "The Robotic Chair" starts with the chair standing on this platform. At some moment, it falls apart. So what really happens is within the chair, there's a number of joints. The joints are released and the chair falls randomly onto the floor. There's a video camera above the chair at this moment like that, that's reading where all of the parts are. The camera is sending that information to a laptop, and it is then taking that information and figuring out what and how to put itself back together, and there's a sort of prescribed script about how it's going to do it. And then voila, you have the chair again
Narrator (09:10):
Watching this object repair itself and try to become whole again over and over. It's impossible not to see a very human tail. "The Robotic Chair" tells a story of failure and recovery, but what makes this chair so special is that it never stops putting itself back together.
Kyana (09:27):
You never are a static person through your entire life. You're always, you'll fall apart. You build yourself into somebody new.
Phyllis (09:33):
So it's kind of, to me, it portrays that the journey towards building something back up is not linear. It's not stepwise. It's kind of messy. It's kind of all over the place.
Narrator (09:45):
Transcending languages and cultures. The sculpture offers us a rather poetic representation of resilience. Like the chair, there will be moments when we fall down, but we have the power to pick ourselves up and begin anew. Its message is both universal — and timeless.
(10:07):
Join us as we decode Canadian art and understand why looking at art matters.

The Robotic Chair

Can you feel that? It’s your art decoding muscles growing stronger. Don’t stop now!

The idea that all representations of the real involve an artifice is at the root of my work.

With some tricks borrowed from movie magic, this sculptor creates a self-portrait so real it can hardly be believed. 

TVO Arts - Evan Penny, Old Self: Portrait of the Artist as He Will (Not) Be 

Narrator (00:02):
Art can make us question reality in ways our eyes can hardly even believe. This is "Old Self, Portrait of the Artist as He Will (Not) Be, Variation 1". It was created in 2011 by Evan Penny, a Canadian artist known for his spectacularly realistic creations. It's so unbelievably lifelike it may even make you feel a bit uneasy. So why is it so hard to look away from?
Giovanna (00:32):
I felt like he was familiar. I felt like I was looking at somebody sort of on the street.
Ashley (00:39):
I can't tell if it's a picture or a sculpture really.
Taija (00:42):
I want to be totally honest. I just want to touch it. That's what I want. I'm curious to see what it would feel like
Narrator (00:51):
At twice life size, the sculptural bust (that's right, it's a sculpture) depicts a man in his seventies or eighties. He wears a plain T-shirt, some stylish round glasses, and a rather contemplative expression on his face. What's he thinking about? Stepping closer. The details are mind boggling. Stubble grows whisker by whisker from the figure's, chin and cheeks. His wrinkled skin is marked by blemishes and stippled with tiny pores. It looks soft warm. Even the sculpture appears astonishingly real, like you might catch it blinking if you stare long enough.
(01:29):
The work is actually a self-portrait, but it doesn't capture Penny as he looked when he made the sculpture. Rather, it's an imaginary portrayal of the artist as he may look years in the future when he's an old man. "Old Self" belongs to a two-part series with its counterpart, "Young Self, Portrait of the Artist as He Was (Not). Here the artist reimagines what he looked like as a young man just entering adulthood. The pair are often exhibited together. Representing the bookends of Penny's adult life envisioned from a time in between.
Evan Penny (Artist) (02:02):
The sculpture of "Old Self"and "Young Self" are linked. You can't have one without the other.
Taija (02:12):
Art is just another way to experience another person, and I think it's pretty cool that with this particular piece we get to experience his viewpoint of himself.
Giovanna (02:21):
It makes me think of a modern day approach to a Renaissance painting. So in a sense, he's sort of immortalized himself.
Narrator (02:29):
Evan Penny was born in 1953. His father was a missionary doctor in South Africa, and the Penny family moved frequently immigrating to Canada. In 1964, penny attended the Alberta College of Art where he studied sculpture, and he began making and exhibiting realistic sculptures of the human form in the late seventies and early eighties.
Evan Penny (Artist) (02:51):
For some reason, I've always been interested in sculpture, but I think the core motivation comes from something even more basic, which is that I like to build things three dimensionally.
Narrator (03:03):
At the same time that he was growing his own art practice, penny began working in special effects for the film and television industry where he created prostheses, body doubles, and props for films like X-Men, Nixon and Legends of the Fall. His work was even nominated for an Emmy. Through his experience with special effects, penny became skilled using materials like human hair and fleshy silicone to enhance the illusion of life. Eventually, he began incorporating these techniques in his own sculptures to staggering effect.
Evan Penny (Artist) (03:37):
That allowed me to create a much more illusionistic image, much more realistic, which allowed me then to juxtapose that against the artificial reality of that object. So the idea that all representations of the real involve an artifice is at the root of my work.
Narrator (03:58):
Penny is associated with an art movement known as 'hyperrealism'. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of 'photorealism', such as we see in the paintings of Mary Pratt, drawing on our familiarity with high resolution imagery and digital manipulation. Hyperrealism is a style that creates lifelike works that simulate a new reality. Though Penny's sculptures are certainly realistic, he actually considers realism more of a tool than a goal in itself.
Evan Penny (Artist) (04:29):
The goal of my sculpture has never been realism. I've never thought of myself as a realist. I use realism. My interest is in questioning what we assume to be real.
Narrator (04:43):
Much of his work distorts the human body in ways we're accustomed to seeing only on screens, but never in our physical space, which is what makes it so startling.
Evan Penny (Artist) (04:53):
You can get vertigo, you can feel your heartbeat rise, your blood pressure or your skin becoming flush. Those sorts of physical responses to this thing that on the one hand is very real and convincing, and on the other hand is doing something that it really should not be doing.
Giovanna (05:15):
It messes with your brain and your perception and your eyes want to make sense of it because it's almost like you're seeing devil.
Christina (05:22):
I think seeing it and experiencing in person, it would just give you goosebumps in the best way possible.
Narrator (05:28):
For much of his career, Penny sculpted his subjects the old fashioned way, working long hours with a live model in his studio. But he found the more time he spent with his subject capturing greater and greater detail, the more neutral his sculpture's expression became. So he began exploring a new process as a way to embed a sense of the moment in his portraits.
(05:50):
"Old Self" and "Young Self" both started with a 3D photographic scan of the artist's body. He brought a photograph from his youth as well as a picture of his father into the scanning studio to help mentally transport himself to the different ages as he was being photographed, the resulting three-dimensional form was milled by machine from hard foam. He then made a mold of the foam model and cast a copy in clay sculpting its overall form as well as surface details like wrinkles and pores. This was again, molded and cast this time in thin layers of pigmented silicone to build up color details like skin tones and blemishes. Next, the hair was punched stranded by strand into the silicone. Finally, the cast resin eyes were installed and the clothing and accessories were fitted, fabricated, and applied.
Evan Penny (Artist) (06:45):
A sculpture like "Old Self" might be somewhere between 150 and 200 hours to complete
Narrator (06:54):
For "Old Self" and "Young Self", Penny imagined himself far in the future and far in the past. In order to explore the ways we perceive ourselves, especially the crucial role photographs play in forming the way we see ourselves in the past, present, and future,
Evan Penny (Artist) (07:12):
Any idea we have of who we were or how we looked when we were young is shaped and defined by photography, and I would argue that even who we're going to become is shaped by photography.
Taija (07:26):
I do think this concept is really interesting because especially now with social media, I feel like sometimes we don't even know who we are or who we perceive ourselves as.
Giovanna (07:36):
It's so interesting to me that he not only reflected on who he was in the past, but who he will still become and who he is yet to be.
Narrator (07:43):
Pictures have a tremendous influence over how we see ourselves in the world, even though old self is a complete fiction, penny has said the work has changed his self-image.
Evan Penny (Artist) (07:54):
Of all the sculptures I've done, the making of "Old Self" changed me the most. I can now imagine and see myself as an old person
Narrator (08:03):
For the finishing touch. A black and white photo portrait of the sculpture is often exhibited alongside it. The photo seems to show a living, breathing person. It appears like proof that this man who's purely an invention of the artist's imagination exists out there in the world. There's photographic evidence. After all, this final gesture makes it clear that photographs may not be the reliable documents of reality that we mistake them for.
Evan Penny (Artist) (08:32):
One of the attributes we've always given to photography is that it represents the truth and progressively, especially now with the digital revolution, we've become aware that in fact, that's not the case. I think we all understand how photography lies. We may not understand to what extent
Narrator (08:52):
Filters. Photoshop. Computer generated images. We're regularly encountering pictures that present all manners of distortion, manipulation, and invention. Images are just as malleable as the artist's clay. They're as deceptive as silicone. By making the unreal comes so vividly alive. Penny's work reminds us that so much of our visual world contains some degree of illusion. Indeed, it's becoming harder and harder to believe your eyes.
(09:27):
Join us as we decode Canadian art and understand why looking at art matters.

Old Self (Portrait of the Artist as He Will (Not) Be, Variation 1)

As beautiful as a butterfly, but as mighty as a mountain, that's the power of art! Time for another? 

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.

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.

The Wisdom of the Universe

That was some top-notch decoding. Now that you’re all warmed up, would you like to try another?

I was just a little girl who wanted to be Vince Carter and didn't know how to be.

Part basketball jersey, part ball gown — this whimsical artwork defies expectations and plays with possibility. 

TVO Arts - Esmaa Mohamoud, One of the Boys (Black)

Narrator (00:02):
Art can challenge our expectations and open a world of possibility. This is "One of the Boys" (Black) by the artist Esmaa Mohamoud. She created the artwork in 2019. It's part of an acclaimed series of sculpture and photography centered around the artist's whimsical interpretation of a dress, as well as powerful questions about race and gender.
Holly (00:28):
Okay, so what I'm seeing is a Black Raptors jersey as sort of like a core setted top, and then the other half of the piece is a ball gown with some kind of silk or a satin fabric draped over it, and it's very voluminous and long.
Andre (00:48):
It's like street wear on top, but bridal on the bottom.
Alex (00:52):
It's very different from any kind of dress I've ever seen before.
Narrator (00:58):
Extravagant and entirely unexpected. The artwork is a hybrid of two very different kinds of uniforms. One part is a magnificent black ballgown with a dramatic hoop skirt and a long flowing train that drapes on the ground behind. While the other part resembles a sleeveless basketball jersey with the Toronto Raptors logo emblazoned on the bodice, along with the name and number of Raptor legend Vince Carter.
(01:28):
Notice that the size of the dress are laced like a corset, but using the laces of basketball shoes, the garment combines elements that might be considered masculine with elements that might be considered feminine, which brings up all sorts of questions about the ways we define and experience gender. This black version is actually one of nine dresses in the series with variations in other colors and featuring other teams.
(01:58):
The dresses are often exhibited alongside a series of photographs, showing models wearing each of the gowns while striking dramatic poses. These photos are usually shot in three quarter length and almost always from behind, which the artist does to intercept the viewer's gaze. She doesn't want to let you see them all at once in every photo. The model is black, but their gender is often ambiguous.
Holly (02:24):
I think that's probably why this piece is so powerful. It's because everyone knows what a jersey is and everyone knows what a ball gown is, and kind of questioning what these two things mean together.
Uju (02:34):
There's so much power in how we adorn ourselves and the choice that this artist has taken. It's very fraught with te nsion.
Narrator (02:45):
Esmaa Mohamoud was born in London, Ontario in 1992. She's the middle child and the only girl with four brothers who all played basketball through high school sports were at the center of her suburban childhood, and young saw them as a way to connect with her brothers.
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (03:02):
When you're a kid, you're playing sports with your siblings as a way to bond, and that's how I saw it. It was like a bonding time, so even though I was on the curb dribbling the ball and watching them play, it was still a bonding experience for me.
Narrator (03:15):
Growing up, not far from Toronto in a family, obsessed with basketball. The Mohamouds were huge Raptors fans, but it was the team's star shooting guard, Vince Carter, who really captured Es asthma's imagination.
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (03:28):
He just had swag and charisma, and I love the way he played, and the man is a dunk master. So anytime the dunk competition came up, I was like, this guy is not human.
Narrator (03:41):
Off the court art was another early passion. Esmaa would rush home from school every day to craft along to a popular children's TV art program, and by 16, she knew she wanted to be an artist. Today, Mohamoud is at the forefront of contemporary Canadian art with work across multiple disciplines, including sculpture, photography, textiles, video performance and installation. Her art uses pop culture, especially sports as a lens to explore the dynamics of race, gender, and class. It's important to note that those sports have played a big part in much of Mohamoud's work. The work isn't about sports. Rather, she uses the subject as a sort of backdoor to stage more difficult conversations.
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (04:31):
As I realized, sure, people are uncomfortable to talk about race, but no one's uncomfortable talking about sports. So I kind of used it as a trick to get people to talk about race. And you know what? To be honest, it worked.
Andre (04:43):
She's almost using it as like a landing pad or like an airbag to kind of soften the blow. It's like an easy way to bring her message forward, right?
Uju (04:53):
It's quite clever because people will examine what you've done for quite some time before they realize what you've done.
Narrator (05:00):
The concept for "One of the Boys" comes from a significant childhood memory for the artist. One day she was on her way to go play with her brothers when her mom stopped her and said, if you want to play outside, you've got to put on a dress. So the young asthma went upstairs and put on a dress. She knew her mom liked fuchsia and frilly almost like a tutu, but then in a small act of rebellion, she popped her favorite basketball jersey over the top. It was a black Vince Carter jersey,
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (05:30):
And when I came down, she said to me in Arabic, "You're not one of the boys. You got to take it off." and that "you're not one of the boys" really stuck with me. That phrase, and it was a hard pill to swallow, and I had many conversations with my mother after it.
Narrator (05:48):
This was a painful lesson for Mohamoud about gender and the roles we feel expected to play. The artist and her mom have since talked about the moment, and her mother has apologized. She didn't recognize what it meant to a young person forming ideas about their identity and how they wish to express themselves. Nonetheless, the sense of rejection is a feeling that stayed with the artist for a long time.
Andre (06:10):
I like that this was something that stayed with her, and then she thought to herself that, I'm going to break this. I'm going to break the status quo. This rule,
Victoria (06:21):
I know that art can come from a place of difficulty and challenge and hardships, so I can very much see how that story has come to life in these pieces.
Uju (06:31):
It's a lot of stuff that has to be undone to get to a space to create this beauty.
Narrator (06:35):
For Mohamoud who's made artwork for materials as diverse as Shea butter chain and ratan concept always comes first, she selects the art medium that best serves her idea.
(06:47):
"One of the Boys" is an example of wearable art. Wearable art refers to artworks that take the form of clothing, jewelry, or other accessories. It emerged in the 1960s developed by mixed media artists who were designing works around the body to produce the first dresses.
(07:09):
Mohamoud collaborated with another young artist named Qendrim Hoti, and the pair hired a seamstress to realize their designs. The artwork is made from silk velvet jersey, repurposed components of a Toronto Raptors, jersey shoelaces and metal boning. Esmaa worked closely with the seamstress, perfecting the proportions of the hoop and bust. The dress required a large dramatic effect, but it could not be so over the top as not to be wearable. Laced on the sides the gowns are crafted to be adjustable to various body types. The first two dresses, one red and one purple debuted at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2017.
Andre (07:51):
We should have that freedom to be able to express ourselves and do what we want, wear what we want. That's feeling I'm getting here.
Narrator (07:59):
"One of the Boys" comes directly from the artist's childhood experience bumping against gender roles where she once felt rejected for expressing herself this way. The artwork revives her childhood vision. Now as a glorious and dignified statement,
Esmaa Mohamoud (Artist) (08:14):
"One of the Boys" was kind of this amazing safe space to be who you are, and I really appreciated that and wish I had that as a child.
Narrator (08:23):
The sculpture raises a range of related discussions about gender and expectation from male fragility to the underrepresentation of women in sports. Meanwhile, the photographs which show the dresses being worn steer the conversation toward the black bodies wearing them. Especially the stereotypes black men face about showing vulnerability, mixing the garments, Mohamoud mixes the codes that everyday items like clothing can represent. "One of the Boys" presents a broader, more fluid and freer notion of gender, one that fits the artist's own experience. It upends expectation and imagines new ways of being, and it tells us that we all have permission to go out and play.
(09:14):
Join us as we decode Canadian art and understand why looking at art matters.

One of The Boys (Black)

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)

A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)

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)

Kent Monkman, Resurgence of the People

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 BGL 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 BGL'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
BGL 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
BGL 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 BGL'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 BGL 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
BGL 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
BGL 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 BGL 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 BGL's work depending
08:44
is funny the artists want you to laugh
08:47
at their art
08:48
BGL 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
BGL 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
[Music]
09:53
[Music]
10:10
help tvo create a better world through
10:13
the power of learning visit tvo.org and
10:15
make a tax deductible donation today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWhxkKlXKc&ab_channel=NationalGalleryofCanadahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWhxkKlXKc&ab_channel=NationalGalleryofCanada

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