A new 2-storey art piece is going up on the National Gallery. Here's what it's about
Artist Deanna Bowen says the work started from ‘a place of self-recovery’
An enormous new art piece depicting the Black settler experience in Canada will soon go on display outside the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Installation of the two-story mural, which will cover the entire length of the gallery's windowed facade facing Major's Hill Park, will begin Monday.
The work by Montreal-based artist Deanna Bowen is titled The Black Canadians (after Cooke), a reference to a 1911 Maclean's magazine article by Britton B. Cooke that argued against Black immigration to Canada from the United States.
"I call it the black-iest, black black thing they've ever seen," Bowen said of her art piece in an interview with CBC's Ottawa Morning.
Bowen said the images, which depict her family's history and experience as Black Canadians, are set against a "sea of black."
"I wanted to create a piece that you couldn't pass by easily, and something that would generate a conversation," she said. "The scale helps in that regard."
The images are arranged across 17 panels, Bowen said, and depict subjects ranging from her great-great-grandfather's census records to prominent historical figures such as Queen Victoria and William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Work will push buttons, artist says
The art piece deals with topics ranging from the abolition of slavery to the genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
"It started, really, from a place of self-recovery," Bowen said. "I was working through generational trauma … just trying to survive."
Bowen said she has worked with similar themes in previous projects and already has a sense of "what buttons it's going to push."
But for her, spirited discussion is a welcome outcome.
"The things that are in the work are things that Canadians often try to shy away from," Bowen said. "The project was meant to generate discussion, so let's have the discussion."
Installation of The Black Canadians (after Cooke) is scheduled to be completed on July 15, weather permitting.
It will remain up until the fall of 2024.