Zacharias Kunuk, video still, Nipi, 1999. Collection of the Department of Art, Queen's University. Purchase, Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund, 2004
Exhibitions
Subject to Rule
The Davies Foundation Gallery
21 May - 11 September 2005
Subject to Rule explored changing concepts of citizenship in a selection of works drawn from the Art Centre's recent acquisitions of contemporary art. In works that ranged from humorous and celebratory to critical perspectives on historical processes, the exhibition exposed the tensions inherent in the individual's encounter with the idea of the nation, and in communal identity formation in the Canadian context. The thoughtful elaboration of shifting power relations embedded in this show was of interest at a time when the erosion of the nation state by the economic forces of globalisation was countered by resurgent ethnic nationalisms.
The exhibition included works by Carl Beam, Rebecca Belmore, General Idea, Zacharias Kunuk, Edward Poitras, and Joyce Wieland. Subject to Rule was developed in collaboration with Erin Morton, as part of a practicum course in the graduate program of the Department of Art.
Jan Allen