Lori Blondeau

Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux artist working primarily in performance art, but also occasionally in installation and photography.^[1] Blondeau is a member of the Gordon First Nation,^[2] and is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Life

Blondeau was born in Regina, Saskatchewan^[3] in 1964.^[1] As a young artist, she was influenced by the storytelling tradition passed on to her by her mother and grandmother, by her grandfather's woodworking and her mother's quilting, and by her brother, Edward Poitras's art practice. She holds an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan (2003), and spent three years apprenticing with Luiseño performance artist James Luna in California in the 1990s.^[3] In 1995, she co-founded Tribe, an artist-run centre geared towards exhibiting the work of contemporary First Nations artists in Canada.^[4]

Work

Much of Blondeau’s work revolves around stereotypes of First Nations women in popular culture. She regularly works with depictions of the Indian Princess and the Squaw, examining how this colonial imagery affects the roles of women in Aboriginal communities.^[5] These personas manifest in photo-based works such as COSMOSQUAW (1996) and Lonely Surfer Squaw (1997), in which Blondeau performs a “re-working of a notorious racist-sexist stereotype.”^[6]

Significant performance works include The Ballad of Shameman and Betty Daybird (2000), Are You my Mother? (2000), Sisters (2000), and A Moment in the Life of Belle Sauvage (2002).^[3]

In addition to her solo practice, Blondeau frequently collaborates with other artists, including performance artist Adrian Stimson. Together, the two presented an exhibition entitled Buffalo Boy and Belle Sauvage: Putting the WILD Back into the West at the Mendel Art Gallery in 2004, which paired Stimson as Buffalo Boy with Blondeau’s persona Belle Sauvage. The exhibition provided an Indigenous re-thinking of the iconography of cowboy narratives, probing questions of representation.^[7] Other collaborations have included works with internationally renowned artists Bradlee LaRocque, James Luna, and Shelley Niro.^[2][8]

Tribe Artist Run Centre

In September 1995, Lori Blondeau co-founded Tribe: A Centre for the Evolving Aboriginal Media, Visual and Performing Arts Inc., along with Bradlee LaRocque, April Brass, and Denny Norman.^[4] Blondeau currently serves as director of Tribe.^[8]

Notes