Algoma Hills
Artist
Ruth Cuthand
(Canadian, born 1954)
Date1990
Mediumgraphite on paper
DimensionsOverall: 101.9 x 132.8 cm (40 1/8 x 52 5/16 in.)
Credit LineThe Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern. Purchased with funds from the Canada Council Special Purchase Assistance Program 1990.
Object number1990.20.3.a-b
Classificationsdrawing
On View
Not on viewThe title for this series of graphite drawings was inspired by a stamp bearing the warning: “Misuse is abuse: property of Government of Canada.” Ruth Cuthand discovered the wording on her school supplies as a child in southern Alberta. To her, it was a message that Indigenous children could not be trusted to take care of public property. In these artworks Cuthand uses the phrase to point a finger back at the government, implicating those in power for the misuse of Indigenous bodies, beliefs and lands.
The stenciled text and crudeness of the drawings suggest a childish or untrained hand. The silhouette of the small Indigenous body is a representation of lingering stereotypes. The “white liberal” woman, on the other hand, is large and terrifying with pointy fingers, shoes and tongue.
The titles of the works themselves are derived from famous paintings by the Group of Seven. In this way, Cuthand confronts a viewer who appreciates decades-old landscape paintings as art, but is unprepared to deal with how Canada’s settler construct of mythologizing the wilderness aligns with government policy to erase Indigenous communities.
The stenciled text and crudeness of the drawings suggest a childish or untrained hand. The silhouette of the small Indigenous body is a representation of lingering stereotypes. The “white liberal” woman, on the other hand, is large and terrifying with pointy fingers, shoes and tongue.
The titles of the works themselves are derived from famous paintings by the Group of Seven. In this way, Cuthand confronts a viewer who appreciates decades-old landscape paintings as art, but is unprepared to deal with how Canada’s settler construct of mythologizing the wilderness aligns with government policy to erase Indigenous communities.
