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Kent Monkman

The Impending Storm
From the "Trilogy of Saint Thomas"

Artist

Kent Monkman
1965- Fisher River Nêhiyaw Nation Active in Toronto and New York

Title

The Impending Storm
From the "Trilogy of Saint Thomas"

Date

2004

Materials

Acrylic on canvas

Dimensions

152.6 x 242.4 cm

Credits

Gift of W. Bruce C. Bailey in honour of Nathalie Bondil, inv. 2014.186.1

Collection

Quebec and Canadian Art

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.

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