Colonial Era Trading Explored In Art Purchase

Colonial Era Trading Explored In Art Purchase

Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 12:51

The MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina has received a $30,000 award to purchase six works by Saskatchewan artist Ruth Cuthand.

The works are part of Cuthand’s Trading Series.

Cuthand says her art is a microscopic view of trading between First Nations and Europeans.

“The beads… were trade items. They replaced the quill work on the plains, for the women, and so they sort of represent colonization. And with the trading of the beads, also diseases were traded. And so the diseases are represented as microscopic views of them,” Cuthand says.

She says 11 diseases arrived in the “New World” from Europe.

The works will be part of a group exhibition next summer.