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Diana ThorneycroftA People’s History (Fire-swept Algoma)2009
2009
About the Item
Post-colonialism has taught us that history is multifaceted, and can never be a straightforward narrative from a single point-of-view. When considering stories of the past, we collectively need to ask: Whose history is being remembered; whose recollections are recorded and on what terms? Who will talk about what the disenfranchised will have to endure if they are voiceless?
Thorneycroft voices the stories of the marginalized in her series A People’s History, a group of images that clearly evolved from her works Group of Seven Awkward Moments and the Canadiana Martyrdom Series, with their kitschy Canadian icons and archetypical wooded landscapes as backgrounds. She crafts and captures events in Canadian history that people are disinclined to claim as their own. These scenes are enacted using tinker toys, which come across as both didactic tools and horrifying misappropriations. Thorneycroft points out that these images all involve the disadvantaged, the uneducated and the young – populations that are frequently overlooked and whose grievances go unheard.
One particularly striking and complex photograph is Quintland, a depiction of the lives of the Dionne quintuplets who were born into a media frenzy, and their existences were turned to profit. We find a landscape painted in the background, very much in the realm of the Group of Seven, depicting the harsh and rugged landscape often associated with Canada. Snow-capped plastic trees complete the effect of a strange and unnatural version of nature. The viewer is situated in the foreground of the image within an outdoor playpen, protected by wood fencing and barbed wire. The girls roam happily around the pen in candy-coloured garb: one rides a bike, another climbs the jungle gym and their playthings are scattered around the contained lawn. Up close, it becomes apparent that the girls wear handcuffs, and these shackles provide the viewer with a clear message about their oppression, and add another layer of physical containment. The little dolls used to build the scene could have easily been sold at the Quintland gift store years ago. On the right, a doctor stands, equipped not only with his medical equipment but also a camera, prepared to snap photos for public consumption. He is not alone is his voyeurism: a busload of tourists take pictures from the safe vantage of their tour bus and nearby a family has made a vacation of coming to observe them, to inspect the spectacle.
Thorneycroft reminds us with A People’s History that history can only be encapsulated reluctantly, with a kind of arbitrary closure, and that we should beware of the empty promise of happy endings.
- Creator:Diana Thorneycroft (1956, Canadian)
- Creation Year:2009
- Dimensions:Height: 22 in (55.88 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Montreal, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4762042833
Diana Thorneycroft
Diana Thorneycroft is a Winnipeg-based contemporary artist, born in 1956, in Claresholm, Alberta, Canada. She has exhibited various bodies of work across Canada, the United States and Europe, as well as in Moscow, Tokyo and Sydney. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction, assistance to visual arts long-term grant from the Canada Council, several senior arts grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and a fleck fellowship from the Banff Center for the Arts. Her early work was the subject of national radio documentaries and a CBC national documentary for television. From 2000-02, Diana's photo-based exhibition, “The Body, its Lesson and Camouflage” toured to eight venues. Several images from this show were included in the 2002 Phaidon Press publication, Blink, which presents the work of 100 rising stars in photography. Diana is best known for her photographic work depicting facets of Canadian identity. Some of the work is humorous, sometimes dark, frequently both. From 2007-14, she completed four photography series, “The Canadiana Martyrdom Series," “Group of Seven Awkward Moments," “A People's History” and “Canadians and Americans (best friends forever... it's complicated).” Canadian Art Magazine selected the “Group of Seven Awkward Moments” as one of The Top 10 Exhibitions of 2008. Equally as dark, is her drawing series, “There Must Be 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover,” which is divided into three categories, Foul Play, Desperate Housewives and Failed Relationships. In 2013, Diana began working on a complex installation, entitled “Black Forest (dark waters).” The exhibition, which had its inaugural opening in 2018, is composed of three interconnected bodies of work and two sculptural installations that are presented as physical evidence of the cryptic narrative that unfolds in the suite of 19 photographs.
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