Lori Blondeau

Cree/Saulteaux/Métis Nations / Canada

Lori Blondeau is Cree/Saulteaux/Métis from Saskatchewan. Since the 1990s, Blondeau’s artistic practice in the fields of performance, photography and installation, along with her curatorial work and activities as co-founder and Executive Director of the Indigenous art collective TRIBE, has proved decisive to the ever-increasing centrality of Indigenous art and knowledge production in Canada.

With her performances, which include Are You My Mother? (2000), Sisters (2002) and States of Grace (2007) and photographic work, including COSMOSQUAW (1996), Lonely Surfer Squaw (1997) and Asinîy Iskwew (2016), Blondeau’s practice, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with fellow visual artists demonstrates a clarity of focus which is remarkable for its precision, humour and strength. She has collaborated with artists James Luna on a series of installations and a performance titled Dead Fall Revue (2000). In 2006, Blondeau had a solo exhibition Grace at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon and in 2007 she was part of the Requickening project with Shelly Niro, which was presented in the Venice Biennale.

Since 2018, Blondeau has been Assistant Professor of Indigenous Art at the University of Manitoba School of Art. Blondeau was a recipient of the 2021 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Curated and presented by FADO Performance Art Centre in the context of the PSi Conference, taking place in Toronto from June 9–12, 2010.

FADO is pleased to present a new performance work by Lori Blondeau. Entitled Feast and/or Famine, the artist creates an image of the hard-at-work Indian Princess/Squaw, preparing the fire and gathering place, juxtaposed with a modern-day feast (the BBQ) that brims over with plenty but feeds no one at the gathering.

“The images of the Indian Princess and Squaw have had a significant impact on societies’ perception of Indian women and serve as inspirations for most of my work. Surprisingly, we still see popularized images of the Indian Princess being created by both native and non-native people. You can find these products being sold in Indian Museums and souvenir shops across North America. These are testament to the general public’s idealized perception of beautiful Native women as being exotic and hard to find—virtually non-existent. The other side of the Indian Princess is, of course, the squaw—another of society’s iconic scapegoats meant to desensitize both the general public’s view of Indian women (their political, historical and social issues as well), and the self perception among Native women themselves.

My work explores the influence of popular media and culture (contemporary and historical) on Aboriginal self-identity, self-image, and self-definition. I am currently exploring the impact of colonization on traditional and contemporary roles and lifestyles of aboriginal women. I deconstruct the images of the Indian Princess and the Squaw and reconstruct an image of absurdity and insert these hybrids into the mainstream. The performance personas I have created refer to the damage of colonialism and to the ironic pleasures of displacement and resistance.”
Lori Blondeau

Many thanks to our partners and friends who have made this event possible. Big thanks to OCADU and Johanna Householder, Laura Levin and PSi, the Aboriginal Visual Culture Office (OCADU) and Bonnie Devine, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Tannis Nielsen, Cynthia Lickers, Shelley Niro, Jennifer Rashleigh and claude wittmann.

Tag: Lori Blondeau

Lori Blondeau

Feast and/or Famine by Lori Blondeau

Performance Yellow

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