Rebecca Belmore facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rebecca Belmore
Rebecca Belmore performing at Nuit Blanche 2016 in the Art Gallery of Ontario
Born	(1960-03-22) March 22, 1960 (age 65) Upsala, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Lac Seul First Nation (Canadian)
Known for	installation artist, Performance artist
Awards	Governor General's Award 2013

Rebecca Belmore (born March 22, 1960) is a famous Canadian artist. She is a member of the Anishinaabe people, which is a large group of First Nations people in North America. Specifically, she belongs to the Obishikokaang (Lac Seul First Nation).

Belmore is known for her powerful performance art and installation art. This means she often uses her own body in her art or creates large-scale artworks that you can walk around or through. Her art explores important topics like history, identity, and the challenges faced by First Nations people in Canada. She uses her work to tell stories and make people think about important social issues.

Through her sculptures, videos, and photographs, Belmore often uses natural materials and repeated actions to get her message across. She has shown her art all over the world, including in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Australia.

Early Life and Education

Rebecca Belmore was born in Upsala, Ontario, Canada. As a child, she spent summers with her grandparents in Northwestern Ontario. Her grandmother taught her how to gather traditional foods from the land. This connection to nature would later influence her art.

When she was a teenager, Belmore had to move to the city of Thunder Bay for high school. She lived with a non-Native family, which was a common practice at the time. This experience made her feel disconnected from her culture. Many of her artworks explore these feelings of loss and protest.

In 1988, Belmore studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, where she developed her skills as an artist.

Art and Career

ishkode (fire) (2021) at the Whitney Biennial in 2022

Since 1986, Belmore has been creating and showing her art around the globe. She often participates in major international art shows called biennials.

In 2005, she made history as the first-ever Aboriginal artist to represent Canada at the famous Venice Biennale. Her work for the event was called Fountain. This was a huge achievement and brought more attention to the stories of First Nations artists.

Belmore has had several major solo exhibitions. One, The Named and the Unnamed, was a powerful installation to remember the lives of missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Another, Rising to the Occasion, was a large show at the Vancouver Art Gallery that looked back at her career.

In 2018, the Art Gallery of Ontario held a large exhibition of her work called Facing the Monumental. It included sculptures, installations, photos, and videos from her 30-year career.

What is Her Art About?

Rebecca Belmore's art is deeply connected to her identity as an Anishinaabe woman. She uses art to talk about politics, history, and the environment. Her work often asks viewers to think about the relationship between First Nations people and the rest of Canada.

She explores themes of:

• Voice and Voicelessness: Who gets to tell their story, and whose stories are not heard?
• Place and Land: The importance of the land and the feeling of being displaced from it.
• History: She challenges official historical accounts and tells stories from a First Nations perspective.
• Identity: What it means to be an Indigenous person in the modern world.

Her art is often a form of protest, but it is also about healing and strength.

Famous Artworks

Belmore has created many memorable artworks throughout her career. Here are a few examples:

• Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991): For this performance, Belmore created a giant wooden megaphone. She took it to different locations across Canada and invited people, especially Indigenous people, to speak into it and share their thoughts with the land.

• Mawa-che-hitoowin: A Gathering of People for Any Purpose (1992): This installation featured a circle of kitchen chairs. On each chair was a pair of headphones. Visitors could sit and listen to the recorded stories of different Indigenous women, told in their own voices. It was a way to share personal histories and build community.

• Vigil (2002): In this emotional performance in Vancouver, Belmore paid tribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women. She nailed a long red dress to a telephone pole and then tore it down, screaming out the names of the missing women. It was a powerful act of remembrance and protest.

• Fountain (2005): For the Venice Biennale, Belmore created a video that was projected onto a screen of falling water. In the video, she is shown struggling in a lake and then throwing a bucket of blood-like liquid at the camera. The work spoke about pollution, struggle, and the connection between water and life.

• ishkode (fire) (2021): This sculpture shows a figure wrapped in a sleeping bag, lying on the ground. The figure is made of clay, and around it are empty bullet shells. The artwork is a commentary on the violence that Indigenous people have faced throughout history and continue to face today.

Awards and Recognition

Rebecca Belmore's important work has earned her many awards.

• In 2005, she received an honorary doctorate from OCAD University.
• In 2013, she won the Governor General's Award, one of Canada's highest honors for an artist.
• In 2016, she was awarded the prestigious Gershon Iskowitz Prize.
• She is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

These honors recognize her incredible talent and her important contributions to Canadian art and culture.

Selected Works and Exhibitions

Belmore has created dozens of artworks and has been featured in exhibitions around the world.

Select Performances and Installations

• Artifact #671B (1988): A protest performance during the Olympic Flame celebrations.
• Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991): A traveling performance with a large megaphone.
• I am not a ... Squaw! (1993): A performance challenging stereotypes.
• Vigil (2002): A performance in Vancouver to honor missing women.
• Making Always War (2008): A performance at the University of British Columbia.

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Wana-na-wang-ong (1993), Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
• The Named and the Unnamed (2002), a touring exhibition that started at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver.
• Rebecca Belmore: Rising to the Occasion (2008), Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.
• Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental (2018), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.

See also

In Spanish: Rebecca Belmore para niños