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November 17 2011

maybeedmonton: “H. G. Gylde’s Rutherford Library mural (1951) is clearly an expression of Settler culture’s constructions of “Indians” and their hoped for redemption and reformation through European forms of religion and commerce. The painting has recently been excoriated as racist and it has been suggested that it be removed, contextualized, repainted, that Aboriginal artists be commissioned to paint a rebuttal, and, in fact, Alex Janvier’s new painting hung in that space is seen as an antidote, and not. Rather than only consider the artist as an agent of Western hegemony and the painting as a uniform application of a colonial gaze, this paper examines the mural as the production of a conflicted immigrant trying to make sense of a very strange history. Far from being ideologically coherent, the painting is a scene of competing claims and uncertain alliances. I will examine Gylde’s mural within the politics of the period, but also from the point-of-view of a painter who has compassion for the artist’s impossible project, and as an Edmonton Métis with a personal connection to this representation.” Abstract for David Garneau’s upcoming keynote at the Faculty of Native Studies Research Day.

maybeedmonton:

“H. G. Gylde’s Rutherford Library mural (1951) is clearly an expression of Settler culture’s constructions of “Indians” and their hoped for redemption and reformation through European forms of religion and commerce. The painting has recently been excoriated as racist and it has been suggested that it be removed, contextualized, repainted, that Aboriginal artists be commissioned to paint a rebuttal, and, in fact, Alex Janvier’s new painting hung in that space is seen as an antidote, and not. Rather than only consider the artist as an agent of Western hegemony and the painting as a uniform application of a colonial gaze, this paper examines the mural as the production of a conflicted immigrant trying to make sense of a very strange history. Far from being ideologically coherent, the painting is a scene of competing claims and uncertain alliances. I will examine Gylde’s mural within the politics of the period, but also from the point-of-view of a painter who has compassion for the artist’s impossible project, and as an Edmonton Métis with a personal connection to this representation.” Abstract for David Garneau’s upcoming keynote at the Faculty of Native Studies Research Day.

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