FASTWÜRMS (Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse)
FLAG (detail), 2007
Mixed-media installation
(nylon flag, card table, lawn chairs, posters)
Photo: David Barbour

KC Adams
Cyborg Hybrid Candice, from the Banff Series, 2005
Digital print, artist’s proof

Alisdair MacRae
The African-American Spiritual (detail), 2007
Mixed-media installation
Photo: David Barbour

Eric Robertson
Untitled, 2007
Aluminium, cable, paint
Photo: David Barbour

Dana Inkster
The Art of Autobiography, 2003
Film still

Cynthia Girard
Our Origins (detail), 2001
acrylic on canvas

ANTHEM
Perspectives on Home and Native Land

The Walter Phillips Gallery is temporarily closed. We apologize for any inconvenience.

When rising proudly to sing the national anthem, Canadians patriotically acknowledge the country they call their own. The distinctive red and white flag is waved enthusiastically to honour their freedom as well as their allegiance to stand united, “…on guard for thee.” While the phrase “our home and native land” from the national anthem continues to be sung in harmony, the reality of a unified nation is far from certain outside the hockey arena. As Tuscarora artist and scholar Jolene Rickard attests, “Every country has a national narrative, and Canada is better than most at attempting to integrate multiple stories into the larger framework, but the process is still a colonial project.”

The national anthem is the ostensible symbol of the civil liberties that gives citizens a sense of “Canadian” identity, and a kind of safety, although the fluctuating application of these liberties to Euro-Canadians, Aboriginals and multi-cultural immigrants remains an uneasy issue. However, “nationhood” as constructed by a national anthem is too homogeneous.

ANTHEM: Perspectives on Home and Native Land serves as a catalyst for eight artists from across Canada to identify varying forms of nationhood that either serve or detract from the concept of a national accord. Each artist explores the idea of “anthem” through a wide-angle lens, broadening the national discourse to include not only colonial histories, but also distinctive and multicultural liberties that take various forms: treaties, blood, languages, sexual orientation, faith, and oral traditions. The dynamic range of art works exhibited contribute to a more inclusive national narrative and expose and accept the diverse forms of nationalism that exist across the country.

— Ryan Rice

Artists

KC Adams
FASTWÜRMS
Cynthia Girard
Dana Inkster
Alisdair MacRae
Shirley Moorhouse
Eric Robertson
Miles Turner