Carl Beam Born 1942-2005
Ojibway, West Bay, Manitoulin Island, Canada.
It was in FNST 411, I was introduced to Mixed Media, focusing on the Carl Beam’s work. When I was introducing the concept of Mixed Media to my class, I did a slide show using many of Beam’s images.
Ojibway, West Bay, Manitoulin Island, Canada.
It was in FNST 411, I was introduced to Mixed Media, focusing on the Carl Beam’s work. When I was introducing the concept of Mixed Media to my class, I did a slide show using many of Beam’s images.
Carl Beam style was well know for using graphics, photographs, text, acrylic, ceramics, montage, photo transfer and collage. His art work liked to express the “relationships between Native culture and the 20th century white culture technology”.
“My works are like little puzzles, interesting little games. I play a game with humanity and with creativity. I ask viewers to play the participatory game of dreaming ourselves as each other. In this we find out that we're all basically human…. My work is not fabricated for the art market. There's no market for intellectual puzzles or works of spiritual emancipation.” – Carl Beam in an interview with Allan J. Ryan
When Beam was a young child he was sent to Garnier Residential School, many of his images reflect his childhood experiences were “less than pleasant”. Beam studies art at the Kamloops School of Art, UVIC, and the University of Alberta. It was the National Gallery of Canada, “one of the first major Canadian galleries to recognize Beam’s work”.
If you wish to read more and see more of Carl Beam, you should borrow the book Trickster from UNBC library. My favourite image of Beam, is when he posing in Christian Dior underwear.
Sources
www.maslakmcleod.com/c_beam.html
http://www.artbank.ca/News+and+Events/Activities/bulletin20.htm
4 comments:
This artist is really neat! I am not familiar with his work, and I like his mixed media approach! I will definitely have to check out all his artwork. I also feel a big tie to him being that I am part Ojibway and all lol!
Thanks for posting this Casey!
Very cool Casey!! Do you mind if I show this to my Mom? She is a high school art teacher and she's always looking for new things to show her class. She has been teaching an Aboriginal carving class for the past few years but she's looking to expand into other areas of Aboriginal art, this looks like a great way to bring up all sorts of interesting topics.
Interesting, Casey! I never heard of/read about Beam, before reading your post. I'll have to read Trickster!
I bet it feels good to have classmates respond with interest to your post! Thanks for sharing this information.
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