Micheal Belmore Featured in Vie des Arts

Michael Belmore is featured in Vie des Arts magazine. The review by Marie Perrault details the importance of copper in Belmore’s practice:

In Anishinaabe culture copper embodies the blood of the spirits and higher forces of the Earth and has long been at the heart of exchanges between nations. By using this material, Michael Belmore continues this tradition, but also aims to underline its essential role today in several industries, not least because of its high conductivity – which in fact earns it its status as a critical mineral.

The sculpture Lost Bridal Veil (2015), in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, consists of industrial copper plates, shaped, patinated, hammered and punched by hand. Coalescence (2017-2018) commissioned by Landmarks 2017, is a collection of 24 nested and carved erratic blocks with filled copper on the cut faces. Edifice 2019, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, is a series of interlocking red sandstone blocks, whose sides are covered in a thin sheet of copper. The hand cut stones are grouped together in a manner recreating land demarcation used for the management of natural resources, including their exploitation.

Michael Belmore's work is humble. Anchored in matter, it testifies to the close links of dependence that humans maintain with the Earth, as much as it denounces the impact of colonialism on matter, copper, stone, in the long course of history. Faced with an uncertain future, he highlights Anichinabe know-how, stories and history to revive these great universal questions concerning the human presence and the challenge of evolving in harmony with nature and the territory.

(Translation from the original French of the article.)

Michael Belmore exhibition thunder sky turbulent water at Central Art Garage in 2018.