Kent Monkman (born 1965) is a
Canadian First Nations artist of Cree ancestry. He was born in St.
Marys, Ontario and raised primarily in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
He is both a visual as well as performance artist, working in a variety
of media such as painting, film/video, and installation.His works
combine traditional images with the
narratives
and perspectives of Indigenous peoples. Themes like colonialism,
sexuality, and
historical and contemporary Indigenous experiences lie at the heart of
his
pieces. In large-scale paintings, films, and performances, Monkman
brings to
light violent episodes in the history of North America’s Indigenous
peoples. By
using humor and critical commentary he tries to subvert Canada’s
colonial
myths, which have been cultivated over centuries.He has had many solo
exhibitions at
museums and galleries in Canada, the United States, and Europe. He has
achieved international recognition for his colourful and richly
detailed combining of disparate genre conventions, and for his clever
recasting of historical narrative.
In his painting The Deluge, Kent Monkman links the
biblical
subject of the universal flood with North American colonial history.
Drawing on
the traditions of Western historical and ecclesiastical painting, he
creates a
lively composition that addresses the violent displacement of the
Indigenous
peoples of North America by European settlers. The hero of his painting
is
“Miss Chief Eagle Testickle”, Monkman’s alter ego, who is climbing up a
steep
rock face with two Indigenous children to save them from the deluge of
settlers
and deliver them safely into the hands of their ancestors. The artist
views
Miss Chief as being a “two- spirit” person, a figure who fulfills a
traditional
ceremonial role as a member of the “third gender” in many Indigenous
cultures.
She is a strong figure who, embedded in Western-style imagery, breaks
with
stereotypical depictions and turns the underlying colonial power
relations
upside down. She celebrates the resilience of Indigenous peoples and
their
unbroken bonds with the land and their culture.
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