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Carl Beam

Carl Beam, b. 1943, d. 2005 Self-Portrait in My Christian Dior Bathing-Suit Canada (1980) [Source]

The painting "offers an ironic portrayal of the mythic image of the naked savage. There are none of the ‘typical’ visual clues to tell the viewer that this is an image of a Native American man." Beam "rejects portraying himself as 'the Indian' in favor of depicting himself as an individual who happens to be Indian." (Text from Looking Native)

More info on the Ojibwe artist here.

#Carl Beam #canada #ojibwe #first nations #native american #indigenous #1980s

Carl Beam's monumental collages

After looking at Norval Morisseau and the Woodland School's colourful, stylistic paintings honouring traditions, Carl Beam's works goes towards a total different direction of criticizing the residential system that the Canadian government forced onto the Indigenous people, as well as the skewed historical narratives that has done severe harm that still needs to be amended till this day. His 1984 painting Exorcism, serves as a visual protest of the dodgy attitude of the authority regarding Indigenous welfare and social issues.

Support surface is painted plywood, painted historic Ojibwe warrior facing right, phototransfer of Indigenous people in modern clothing, bird painted on a cardboard square, a couple signs prohibiting trespassing, another cardboard square with painted silhouettes with their arms up and red palm prints in the corner on the top right; but they were segregated from the viewers with barb wires placed horizontally. It is fascinating how Beam creates depth of field with collages in the pictorial and contextual sense. Looking at this work from left to right, a clear timeline is presented on how residential schools robbed Indigenous people from their families, traditions, and integrity as human. The colour palette resembles blood—fresh and oxidized.

Beam had always produced works that reject public's expectation of Indigenous artists. He even went up a notch by introducing performance elements at the opening for his exhibition Altered Ego at Thunder Bay Gallery in 1984 by inviting guests to throw hatchets onto the works, and had archer Dennis Chibnall shoot nine broad-head arrows into the work.

"These actions signalled the destruction of institutionalized barriers prohibiting people’s direct interaction with art. While the subject matter merged the past and present using text and images, people’s participation affecting the work merged art and action. Exorcism signals the way in which destruction can bring about renewal.”- Thunday Bay Art Gallery, 2019

#carl beam #contemporary ojibwe artist

word. Such a Government has something wrong with it.... If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

The speech prompted praise and sympathy all across the nation, but nothing changed. Joseph and his band still could not go home.

-The Whale of Our Being, Chief Joseph and Family, quoted by Carl Beam