#robert houle

[jareckiworld]

Robert Houle — Shaman  (mixed media on mylar, 2014)

[eudemonian]

[thereexists]

Robert Houle (Saulteaux, b. 1947) - The Pines. 2002–2004. Oil on canvas.

“The story of Canada is about us as well. From day one. Because we were here frst. We settled here frst. It’s a tripod, this country. It’s French, English and First Nations. We helped shape this country, you know, and we continue to.” —Robert Houle

From the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Teacher Resource:

“Robert Houle made this work after visiting the Pines, a burial ground and recreation area in Kanehsata:ke, a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) settlement near Oka, Quebec. It was the site of an ongoing land dispute

In 1990, the Pines area became the site of a tense 78-day standoff between Canadian armed forces and Mohawk Warriors and Land Defenders from across Canada. The mayor of Oka (Jean Ouellette) approved condo construction and golf course expansion into the Pines, and the Kanehsata:ke community mobilized to block the construction. Quebec’s provincial police force, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), attacked the barricade, letting off tear gas and concussion grenades. The Mohawk Warriors also succeeded in blocking bridges to the Island of Montreal, cutting off southern suburbs from the city. Negotiations eventually brought the bridge barricades down, and the standoff ended on September 26, 1990.

Houle painted The Pines for himself as a way of remembering the spiritual energy he felt when he visited the area. The Pnes is both a burial ground and a spiritual space. The colours represent the eastern and western doors – with Seneca in the west (blue) and Mohawk in the east (green).

Robert Houle (Saulteaux, born 1947) is a curator, educator and artist.

From 1977 to 1981, Houle was the frst Indigenous Curator of Contemporary Indigenous Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now the Canadian Museum of History) in Ottawa. He resigned in protest after the contemporary Indigenous works he had been collecting were categorized as ‘anthropology’ by the museum.”

[kenotype]

[aholdingspace]

Robert Houle

[indigenouscontemporaryart]

Robert Houle | Kanata. 1992

Houle’s piece ‘Kanata’ is a reworking of 1700s Anglo-American history painter Benjamin West's ‘The Death of General Wolfe’ (1770). What differs here is Houle’s depiction of a solitary Indigenous soldier. Houle can be seen removing the European/Colonizing context of the image by literally washing away the colour, instead only leaving the Indigenous man’s traditional clothing and hairpiece highlighted. Houle can be seen enforcing an Indigenous presence that we often forget existed during the founding of America and Canada. The red and blue of this clothing is echoed in the monochromatic border panels, physically and symbolically re-framing the work while also recreating the French flag.

[rubenista]

Robert Houle, schoolhouse (from Sandy Bay Residential School Series), 2009

[jareckiworld]

Robert Houle  —  Morning Star  (acrylic on canvas, 1976)