In a sculptural collaboration, Rebecca Belmore and Osvaldo Yero use ice to make an artwork melted over the duration of the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s CASHRA conference. A large block of ice signifies a life-size form, the body absent, as evidence that it too will disappear. This work symbolically suggested the frozen land of Canada in winter. To be left outside for too long is to die.
last seen alive in police custody
under the influence
found 5 days later frozen to death in a field
wearing one shoe
marks on his body likely caused by handcuffs
aboriginal teenage boy
dropped off and walking to where?
In memory of Neil Stonechild (1973-1990)
This is the second installation of Rebecca Belmore and Osvaldo Yero’s temporal sculpture, Freeze. An anti-monument, its power relies on the memories and associations that linger well beyond the physical fact of its disappearance. As ice melts into air over the two days of the human rights conference, the aspiration is that the weight of oppression, personal and systemic, begins to evaporate as well.
Multidisciplinary artists Rebecca Belmore (Anishinabe) and Cuban-born artist Osvaldo Yero currently live and work in Vancouver.
Rebecca Belmore, who represented Canada at the 2005 Venice Biennale, has long been creating work about the plight of the disenfranchised and marginalized in society. In her poignant and dramatic performances, the artist's own body becomes the site of historical, cultural and political investigations as she explores the world of myth and community, boundaries between public and private, chaos and linear narrative.
Osvaldo Yero is best known for dealing with the vernacular culture and political climate of his homeland by incorporating emblems of religion, sexuality, nationalistic crests and symbols in his work with irony and affection.
The installation Freeze is a public art project of the convenience curatorial collective.
Support of the Ontario Human Rights Commission is gratefully acknowledged.
