McGill Tribune

A & E

Last Thursday, Hochelaga Revisted was launched at the Montreal Arts Interculturels (MAI) for its six-day run which ends on March 25. Curated by Ryan Rice, the show includes the work of Jason Baerg, Lori Blondeau, Martin Loft, Cathy Mattes, Nadia Myre, and Ariel Lightningchild Smith.

Rice is a Mohawk from Kahnawake who is also an artist, art critic, the director of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, and co-founder of a First Nation artists' collective named Nation to Nation.

Rice conceived of Hochelaga Revisited as a response to the history of First Nations in Montreal, and an exhibition called Hochelaga by Robert Houle in 1992. The exhibition presents works that explore the marginalization and lack of recognition faced by this community. Before colonization, the island of Montreal was a village named Hochelaga, where the St. Lawrence Iroquois resided before their dislocation to surrounding areas. Indeed, McGill is on the land that once was called Hochelaga.

Paying testament to this fact, the Hochelaga Rock, established by Parks Canada, stands by the Roddick Gates. The Hochelaga Rock attests to the findings in 1860 by workmen working near Burnside and Metcalfe of artefacts identifying McGill as part of Mohawk territory. At the time, then-principal Sir John William Dawson, a reknowned geologist, took this as evidence that McGill stands on the land of the village that Jacques Cartier "discovered" in 1535: an Iroquoian village named Hochelaga.

The six works presented vary in medium and speak about Montreal as a "site of conquest, negotiation, manoeuvre, manipulation, and discourse," according to Robert Houle. Martin Loft's work dates from 1986 and consists of 12 photographs of urban aboriginals at the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal. Jason Baerg's piece is a painting entitled Flourish, in which the colours red and yellow predominate. Baerg depicts the island of Montreal and a smaller representation of Hochelaga in conjunction with rays that represent colonization. Ariel Lightningchild Smith's film is a strong piece on colonization. Her video includes a soundtrack commentary juxtaposed with images of a cellophane wrapped face, the use of eggs to illustrate assimilation and genocide policies, and links to the similar pressures of colonization faced by the Irish. Lori Blondeau, who was present at the March 19 launch, presented a piece that at first seems to be a painting but at second glance is a photograph of a tattoo depicting an aboriginal woman. Next was a Cathy Mattes piece based on the game of Twister; here, the spots are represented as parts of her journey in Montreal. Nadia Myre's short film depicts people simultaneously drawing and erasing "Home And" and "Native Land."

The exhibition is close to campus and well worth the short walk to MAI. This Wednesday at 6 p.m. there will be a screening of a documentary entitled Qallunajatut (Urban Inuk). After the artwork is taken down, the project continues on Thursday, April 2 at 6 p.m. with a roundtable on First Nations representation in Montreal which will be facilitated by the exhibition curator Ryan Rice and will feature Sherry Farrell Racette (professor in the department of art history at Concordia University), Skawennati Tricia Fragnito (artist and curator), Ida Labillois Montour (former director of the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal), and Ernest Webb (producer, writer, director).


The MAI (3680 Jeanne Mance) is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, check out www.m-a-i.qc.ca.