Lori Blondeau (born 1964) is a

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

Saulteaux The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Al ...

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

artist working primarily in

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, but also in

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian l ...

and

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

. Blondeau is a member of the

Gordon First Nation The George Gordon First Nation ( cr, ᐳᓵᑲᓇᒌᕽ ''posâkanacîhk'') is a First Nations band government located near the village of Punnichy, Saskatchewan, in Canada. The nation has an enrolled population of 3,752 people, 1,191 of whom liv ...

, and is based in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

Life

Blondeau was born in

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 C ...

Lynne Bell
“Scandalous Personas, Difficult Knowledge, Relentless Images,”
‘’

Canadian Art Canadian art refers to the visual (including painting, photography, and printmaking) as well as plastic arts (such as sculpture) originating from the geographical area of contemporary Canada. Art in Canada is marked by thousands of years of hab ...

", December 9, 2004. in 1964. As a young artist, she was influenced by the storytelling tradition passed on to her by her mother and grandmother, by her grandfather's woodworking and her mother's quilting, and by her brother,

Edward Poitras Edward Poitras (born in 1953) is a Métis artist based in Saskatchewan. His work, mixed-media sculptures and installations, explores the themes of history, treaties, colonialism, and life both in urban spaces and nature.MFA (2003). She spent three years apprenticing with

Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of L ...

performance artist

James Luna James Luna (February 9, 1950March 4, 2018) was a Payómkawichum, Ipi, and Mexican-American performance artist, photographer and multimedia installation artist. His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibiti ...

in California in the 1990s. In 1995, she co-founded Tribe, an

artist-run centre An artist-run space or artist-run centre (Canada) is a gallery or other facility operated or directed by artists, frequently circumventing the structures of public art centers, museums, or commercial galleries and allowing for a more experimental ...

geared towards exhibiting the work of contemporary

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

artists in Canada.

Work

Much of Blondeau's work revolves around the misrepresentation of First Nations women in

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

and

media culture In cultural studies, media culture refers to the current Western world, Western capitalist society that emerged and developed from the 20th century, under the influence of mass media. The term alludes to the overall impact and intellectual guidance ...

. She regularly works with positive and negative associations attached to the

trope Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...

s of the Indian Princess and the

Squaw The English word ''squaw'' is an ethnic and sexual slur, historically used for Indigenous North American women. Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered derogatory, misogynist, and racist.King, C. Richard,De/Scri ...

, examining how

post-colonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

imagery impacts the reception of Aboriginal women in urban communities. These personas manifest in photo-based works such as ''COSMOSQUAW'' (1996) and ''Lonely Surfer Squaw'' (1997), in which Blondeau performs a "re-working of a notorious

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...

stereotype."Len Findlay and Dan Ring, ''Lori Blondeau: who do you think you are?'' Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 2009, p. 20-21. Significant performance works include ''The Ballad of Shameman and Betty Daybird'' (2000), ''Are You my Mother?'' (2000), ''Sisters'' (2000), and ''A Moment in the Life of Belle Sauvage'' (2002). In addition to her solo practice, Blondeau frequently collaborates with other artists, including performance artist

Adrian Stimson Adrian Stimson (born 1964 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada) is an artist and a member of the Siksika Nation. Education Stimson earned a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MFA from the University of Saskatch ...

. Together, they presented an exhibition entitled ''Buffalo Boy and Belle Sauvage: Putting the WILD Back into the West'' at the

Mendel Art Gallery The Mendel Art Gallery was a major creative cultural centre in City Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Operating from 1964 to 2015, it housed a permanent collection of more than 7,500 works of art. The gallery was managed by the city-owned Saskatoon G ...

in 2004, which paired Stimson as Buffalo Boy with Blondeau's persona Belle Sauvage. The exhibition provided an Indigenous re-thinking of the iconography of cowboy narratives, probing questions of representation. Other collaborations have included works with internationally renowned artists

, and

Shelley Niro Shelley Niro (born 1954) is a Mohawk filmmaker and visual artist from New York and Ontario.

. Blondeau has served as a member of the

Aboriginal Curatorial Collective The Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (IC/CA) (formerly the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective) is a Canadian-based fine arts organization that provides professional development opportunities to the Indigenou ...

. In October 2015, as part of a symposium, Supercommunity Live hosted by the

Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan Remai Modern is a public art museum in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The art museum is situated along the west bank of the South Saskatchewan River, at the River Landing development in Saskatoon's Central Business District. The museum's buildi ...

she performed "The Birds, The Bees, The Berries" with Blackfoot artist Adrian Stimpson. The work highlighted responses to environmental threats to bee populations as well as the interconnectedness to life that impacts local and global communities both in natural and urban environments.

Selected works and exhibitions

* ''Sovereign Acts II'', 2017, Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal, Qc * ''Pilgrims of the Wild'', 2016, Marvin Francis Media Gallery, Winnipeg, MB

Tribe Artist Run Centre

In September 1995, Blondeau co-founded Tribe: A Centre for the Evolving Aboriginal Media, Visual and Performing Arts Inc., along with Bradlee LaRocque (her partner at the time), April Brass, and Denny Norman. Blondeau currently serves as executive director of Tribe, a roving artist-run centre that focuses on bringing attention to indigenous art and issues by partnering and collaborating with various galleries. Their most recent project was the final exhibition ''The Fifth World'', curated by

Wanda Nanibush Wanda Nanibush (born 1976) is an Anishinaabe curator, artist and educator based in Toronto, Ontario. She is the Curator of Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the author of the 2017 book ''Violence No More: The Rise of Indigenous Wome ...

, at Saskatoon's

, now the

. The title "referenced the Hopi prophecy of an impending choice between conflict and harmony, and, quoting writer Leslie Marmon Silko, "a new consciousness... that the earth is shared and finite, and that we are naturally connected to the earth and with one another".

''The Pass System''

Blondeau contributed her voice to the documentary film ''The Pass System'' by relating, personal, and family stories of the impact that

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

of Indigenous communities by the Canadian government which took place over the course of 60 years had on her community. The film also included contributions by celebrated indigenous artists and activists,

Alex Janvier Alex Simeon Janvier, LL.D (; born February 28, 1935) is a First Nation artist in Canada. As a member of the commonly referred to " Indian Group of Seven", Janvier is a pioneer of contemporary Canadian Aboriginal art in Canada. Career Alex Janv ...

and

Tantoo Cardinal Tantoo Cardinal CM (born Rose Marie Cardinal; July 20, 1950) is a Canadian actress of Cree and Métis heritage. In 2009, she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing ar ...

. Directed by Alex Williams and produced by Tamarack Productions it premiered at the

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...

in 2015.

Awards

Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually with the prize amount is $25,000 Created in 2000 by then Governor General Adrie ...

(2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blondeau, Lori 1964 births Living people 20th-century First Nations people 21st-century First Nations people Artists from Regina, Saskatchewan Cree people First Nations installation artists Women installation artists First Nations performance artists First Nations photographers Saulteaux people University of Saskatchewan alumni 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists 20th-century Canadian photographers 21st-century Canadian photographers Canadian women photographers Canadian installation artists Women performance artists Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners First Nations women artists