Small Matters
Artist
Edward Poitras
(Canadian, born 1953)
Date1985/1988
Mediumnails, wire, paper, vinyl type
Dimensions75.5 x 176 x 5 cm
Credit LineThe Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern. Purchased 1989.
Object number1989.8.a-c
Classificationsmixed media
On View
Not on viewFor this installation Edward Poitras crumped pages from the book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian Story of the American West, and placed them within wire and nail enclosures. The book was written in 1970 by American historian and novelist Dee Brown, who chronicled the history of displacement and ethnocide faced by Indigenous tribes in the United States. The book is critically acclaimed for its condemnation of the effects of American expansionism on Indigenous culture and life. Historical references, along with a list of specific groups of people who were affected, are inscribed on the wall in white vinyl.
Poitras is a member of the Gordon First Nation. He studied with Sarain Stump at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Saskatoon and then with Indigenous Mexican artist Domingo Cisneros. Poitras’ mixed-media sculptures and installations combine a variety of natural and human-made elements. His work explores themes including memory, history, treaties, the effects of colonialism, and life in urban spaces compared to life on the reserve. In 1995, Poitras became the first Indigenous artist to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale.
Poitras is a member of the Gordon First Nation. He studied with Sarain Stump at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Saskatoon and then with Indigenous Mexican artist Domingo Cisneros. Poitras’ mixed-media sculptures and installations combine a variety of natural and human-made elements. His work explores themes including memory, history, treaties, the effects of colonialism, and life in urban spaces compared to life on the reserve. In 1995, Poitras became the first Indigenous artist to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale.
Mattie Gunterman
1910, printed 1976
