Arthur Renwick – Mask

I first saw Arthur Renwick‘s work at The National Gallery of Canada last year, I’ve recently attended a couple of lectures where his name has come up, which made me go back to rediscover his work. These were some of the portraits that I saw, which are printed larger than life and were extremely impressive. Renwick is a First Nation artist from British-Columbia and this is his series Mask. Renwick photographed First Nations people involved in the arts and asked them to think of the history of the relation between the lens and Native people. He then asked them to make a gesture with there face for their portrait. These grimaces made me feel kind of awkward, especially with the size they are printed at. Renwick goes against traditional portraiture and transforms his sitters making the viewer really question the actual gestures and their feelings. It’s amazing how these images draw you in.

Here’s an excerpt from the National Gallery press release of the exhibit Steeling the Gaze: Portraits by Aboriginal Artists.

“The exhibition explores how contemporary Aboriginal artists have used the portrait as a means of self-expression in spite of its long problematic history for their peoples. “The portrait is a European convention which exerts control over the subject,” explained the CMCP co-curator Andrea Kunard. “In the past, Aboriginal people were often objectified for commercial purposes. They were represented as a dying race doomed by the inexorable march of ‘civilization.’ Contrary to this portrayal, they have neither vanished nor died out; they survived.”

— by Aislinn Leggett on March 10, 2010. Filed under Portraiture

About Aislinn

Aislinn Leggett is a Montreal-based photographer. You can learn more about her work on her website and on her personal blog. You can also follow her Twitter @aislinnleggett and on Facebook.