The Impending Storm
From the "Trilogy of Saint Thomas"

For Kent Monkman, an interdisciplinary visual artist of Cree descent, using beautiful landscapes as a backdrop for his paintings is a form of seduction to attract viewers. People assume that they are looking at a nineteenth-century painting from the Hudson River School (the American art movement, celebrated for its depictions of sublime North American nature, that is a source for Monkman’s settings), but once drawn in, a new narrative becomes apparent: “In stealing these landscapes back, there is a metaphorical way of reclaiming land or reclaiming the landscape.” Monkman rewrites the history of the colonization of Indigenous lands while overturning the stereotypes surrounding Indigenous peoples. In The Impending Storm, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Monkman’s gender-fluid alter ego, subverts the colonial gaze as she runs through the countryside with her lover.