Blondeau Indigenous Art Essay

The process of decolonization is a long, complicated enigma that concerns many different aspects. Contemporary Indigenous artists approach these problems through their artwork, actively using different methods to address decolonization. Two Indigenous artists, Ursula Johnson and Lori Blondeau use their pieces, Mi’kwite’tmn, 2014 and Cosmosquaw, 1996-99 respectively, to approach the effects of colonization in Indigenous culture and in contemporary society. These pieces, although both Contemporary Indigenous pieces that work to undo colonization, acknowledge different issues within this process.

Johnson and Blondeau’s pieces share the Contemporary Indigenous art world, and the world of art past the 1990’s. These pieces, both made by still-practicing

Blondeau’s piece is a parody magazine cover, featuring Blondeau posed in an iconic white pin-up girl aesthetic; a satirical Cosmopolitan cover page model. And in contrast to this item, Mi’kwite’tmn by Johnson is a combination of three different exhibition components; resulting in an interactive setting. A section of Mi’kwite’tmn consists of a responsive Archive Room, holding O’pltek, including a workstation to scan these forms and view these object’s digital records. Johnson uses the “hands-on” approach to include the viewers in the space, thus confronting the audience of their own understandings of what objects do or do not have cultural value, and whom has decided which objects have contemporary cultural value or are considered artifacts. Blondeau’s piece lacks a hands-on experience, but still confronts viewers to examine prejudices by confronting the viewer. In Cosmosquaw, the blatant use of a slur included in the piece invites the viewer to think about colonial hate speech, with its history of oppressive stereotypes against Indigenous women (Bell,“Scandalous Personas, Difficult Knowledge, Restless Images.”). Blondeau’s piece uses a startling practice of stereotypes against stereotypes, rather then Johnson’s interactive approach, to address colonial thinking in contemporary