Bio:Kent is a multidisciplinary artist of Cree ancestry working in painting, performance, installation and video. His painting seeks to overturn the settler painterly tradition through application of the same, and by authorizing through art history otherwise suppressed narratives of indigeneity, while his performance work lays bare sexual colonialism with his partly Cher-inspired alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.

Recording Notes:This interview was recorded live, as part of George Brown College’s 26th Annual Labour Fair, which brought artists and activists in to the college community to speak to this year’s theme: Revolution and Resistance. The audience who joined us for the talk put some questions to the artist toward the end of our conversation. Bridging into this section is the track Dance to Miss Chief, produced for a video by the same name featuring Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. The song heralded the artist’s late arrival to the event. This was entirely my fault, as I sent him to an address on the West side of the city. My questions are breathlessly delivered, the mikes glitchy, but Kent, ever graceful, offers us insight into his practice, his studio, and what drives this work that is both timely, and centuries overdue.

This episode was engineered with the assistance of full time good boy Cale Weir.

Links:

Artist:Artist Website: kentmonkman.com Miss Chief Eagle Testickle’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MissChiefEagleTestickleInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/kentmonkmanTweets: https://twitter.com/KentMonkman

References:Louvre Ruebens' de Medici Cycle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_de%27_Medici_cycleJeff Koons atelier: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jeff-koons-triples-production-capacity-of-his-giant-stone-cutting-facility-antiquity-stone-272656Damien hirst atelier: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/mar/16/damien-hirst-art-marketROM: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rom-apology-into-heart-africa-royal-ontario-museum-1.3840645 AGO: http://www.ago.net/canadian-highlightsGeorge Catlin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_CatlinPaul Kane: https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/paul-kane#The Indigenous Dandy as Cautionary Tale: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/wi-jun-jon-pigeons-egg-head-light-going-and-returning-washington-4317

Photo by Chris Chapman.