 |
MAWA-CHE-HITOOWIN: A Gathering of People for Any Purpose mixed media-1992
This particular installation consisted of a circle of chairs taken from her kitchen and those of female friends and relations. Earphones were placed on the chairs which allowed visitors to join the circle and listen to the stories and experiences of Native women in Canada. The work was created to provide a traditional Native space of the circle as a place to listen, talk and reach understanding. To incorporate the importance of relationship between nature and the Native Community (humanity), she constructed a plywood floor painted with flowers that suggested both linoleum and the flitting shadows on a forest floor. The arranged chairs were taken from her kitchen and living spaces of the women who are closest to her.
The work issued a tacit invitation to sit down and put on the earphones dangling over the chair, and to listen to the voices of Belmore’s female community talking about their lives of struggles, joys and sources of strength as Native women. Using testimony of individual voices, the recitation of oral traditions and Aboriginal tradition of talking in council and listening to elders, the artist welcomed visitors into the circle of native community. |
