Title: UPSTREAM
Artist: Michael Belmore Exhibition year: 2007
Michael BELMORE: A DISPLACEMENT
To a Canadian audience, questions of identity, nationalism, power and authority are immediately readable in Belmore's displaced stones, as representation at a basic level for the cultural displacements experienced by First Nations people. The piece is a quiet whisper, a soft chuckle, a sly dig. Belmore carefully plots the ideal location, sculpts white stones into a subtle pattern, and transports them to their final placement through the woods, up and down several rocky prominences to a crevice on a the perfect chunk of Canadian Shield. Viewers must make a commitment, leave the main path and follow a marked trail deep into the woods. The approach to the actual installation is a final climb to a rocky promontory...
Margaret Rogers, T R A N S P L A N T, Tree Museum Catalogue 2007
Michael Belmore, who is of Ojibway heritage, born north of Thunder Bay, graduated in Sculpture/Installation from the Ontario College of Art in 1994. Michael's work explores the use of technology and how it has affected our relationship to nature. His works are included in the collections of the Indian Art Centre, Hull; the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg; Thunder Bay Art Gallery and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, among others.
;)
;)
;)
;)