Hope 2014

Editor: So, this is "Hope," an oil painting from 2014 by Kent Monkman. The scene feels very grounded and contemporary but with something…older being carried within it. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Ah, Monkman. He invites us to tumble into the complexities of history and representation, doesn't he? I see here a collision of worlds. A group of contemporary figures carry what appears to be an Indigenous figure, nestled within what looks like a brightly patterned blanket. It's like a memory, perhaps of displacement, being physically borne through a very contemporary space. Does it spark a feeling of unease in you? It does in me. Editor: Unease, definitely, but also resilience? Like even burdened, the figure is still present and being carried. Curator: Resilience, precisely! But the expressions, the body language of the carriers...it's not straightforwardly celebratory, is it? Their faces are complex. Are they burdened? Resentful? Committed? Perhaps Monkman is asking us *how* we carry history, and *what* we choose to remember, or forget. Look at the houses behind them, these cookie cutter places we might ignore; they serve as the real ground here. The landscape grounds this parade as both a memory and warning, where the lines of the street give a direct pathway forward. The narrative of this painting might be one of the contemporary indigenous, and what it means to remember the original sin within this country. What do you think? Does my "read" make any sense to you? Editor: It does. I didn't notice the nuances of the carriers' expressions at first, but that reading complicates the story in a really important way. It adds layers to the whole thing, of the houses, of the journey. Curator: Exactly. Monkman doesn't give us easy answers, and maybe the "Hope" isn't entirely without shadows. Art asks us to question and reconsider, all in the space of seeing, so perhaps his point isn’t necessarily how do we look ahead, but maybe how do we remember along the way.