On exhibit until January 8, 2017
La Rábida is a Franciscan monastery overlooking the mouth of the Rio Tinto near the small town of Palos de la Frontera on the Atlantic coast of Spain. Christopher Columbus set sail from this place in August 1492 confident he would find a new route to Asia. He landed instead on an island in the Caribbean Sea. The cultural confrontation that followed his landing is the inspiration and subject of this exhibition.
Using texts and images from European and Indigenous sources Bonnie Devine explores the techniques of the conquistadors, to document and question the evangelical justification for their conquest. The exhibition includes sculpture, drawing, painting, video, and a specially commissioned choral work by Anishinaabe composer David DeLeary that is based on the Latin text of the 1493 Papal Bull, Inter Caetera – the Doctrine of Discovery.
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A member of Serpent River First Nation, Genaabaajing, an Anishinaabe Ojibwa territory on the north shore of Lake Huron, Bonnie Devine’s work emerges from the storytelling and image-making traditions she witnessed as a child. Her art explores issues of land and environment, treaty and history. She is an artist, curator, writer, and educator. Though formally educated at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD U) and York University, her most enduring learning came from her grandparents, who were trappers on the Canadian Shield.
