Name: TVO Arts - Emily Carr, Church in Yuquot Village
Uploaded: 2022-01-22
Duration: 5 min 24 s
Description: 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.

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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)

This painting from 1929 has never been more relevant. Come decode Emily Carr’s Church in Yuquot Village at TVO Arts. 

Emily Carr – Church in Yuquot Village