User:Kalielizabeth/Kent Monkman

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Outside of Monkmans contemporary works in painting, he has also contributed to performance acts within the field. These include but are not limited to works such as Another Feather in her Bonnet, Miss Chief: Justice of the Piece, Iskootāo, Gone with the Wind, and Taxonomy of the European Male. Specific details regarding the executions of these pieces may change depending on staging or venue while sticking to Monkmans general critiques. Visually the pieces utilize performance elements such as dance, drag, and character to engage the audience in what can otherwise be a polarizing showcase. Monkman uses performance, film, and video works "as an opportunity to make a film or a video—to document it and then to complete it as something in and of itself. I would always try to document a performance anyway, but I also go that extra length and shoot it as a stand-alone piece with more care given to how it’s being shot so that it can be edited well."<ref>'Decolonial Interventions in performance and new media Art: In conversation with Cheryl L'Hirondelle and Kent Monkman, Julie Nagam, Kerry Swanson, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Kent Monkman/ref>

In Another Feather in her Bonnet, Monkman primarily explores themes regarding Indigenous cultures, identity, and the effects of colonialism. Using his alter ego Miss Chief Testickle to act as a guide through the narrative. Breaking the piece into sets of vignettes Miss Chief showcases and challenges colonial stereotypes to reclaim Indigenous identity.

Miss Chief: Justice of the Piece similarly explores themes of identity within Indigenous communities, while commenting on gender identity and fluidity, conceptualizing the intersection between traditional and contemporary cultures. Miss Chief Eagle Testickle guides us through the narrative critiquing colonial power structures and the influence it has had on minority cultures, Challenging stereotypes Monkman comments on the ways in which Indigenous and minority communities have been marginalized through misrepresentation within the predominantly colonialist perspective.  

Iskootāo premiered in 2019. A multimedia performance piece incorporating dance, music, drag, video projection, and a narrative storytelling element Monkman has incorporated in other performances. Iskootāo acts as a greater part in Monkmans artistic process. Engaging these themes within his work considered broadly engaging similar issues of colonialism, Indigenous identity, and the complexities within cultural teaching and exchange. The performance acts as a celebration of Indigenous resilience and influence while confronting the challenges the community has faced within colonialist stereotypes. Within the performance Miss Chief Eagle Testickle takes the audience through a narrative that has no distinct time or physical space in order to confront a past and potential future for the Indigenous community. The word Iskootāo derives from the Plain Cree word which is translated, “to inspire awe.”

Monkmans performance Gone with the Wind, acts as a contemporary critique and reimagining of the 1939 film, “Gone with the Wind.” The film is widely criticized for its perception of the South and racial portrayals. Monkman subverts the narrative of the film to depict the glorification of the South, the erasure of Persons of color within a film that is capitalized as a romanticization of the Antebellum South.

In Taxonomy of the European Male Miss Chief Eagle Testickle deconstructs the traditional representations of masculinity that conform to Eurocentric ideologies. Instead transforming the idea of masculinity to explore power dynamics within gender roles, and through which we have a depiction of historical colonialism.

References

“The Alternative Realism of Kent Monkman” https://thewalrus.ca/the-alternative-realism-of-kent-monkman/

"Artist Kent Monkman on His Alter Ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle." Metropolitan Museum https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/articles/2019/12/kent-monkman-miss-chief-eagle-testickle

"Decolonial Interventions in Performance and New Media Art: In conversation with Cheryl L'Hirondelle and Kent Monkman" Julie Nagam, Kerry Swanson, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Kent Monkman, Canadian Theatre Review, Volume 159, Summer 2014, pp. 30-37 (Article)