Welcome to What You’ll Call America
Two-spirit reimagining of Europe’s Turtle Island incursion
Artist Kent Monkman performs as Miss Chief Testickle, against the backdrop of
his “Resurgence of the People,” at the Met Museum on December 19.
BY NICHOLAS BOSTON
A shipwreck off the coast
of Turtle Island. In the
background, European
would-be settlers cling
for dear life to their upturned vessel.
A shark’s dorsal fi n cuts the
surface of the stormy sea. In the
foreground, drenched settlers claw
at a rocky promontory, pleading
with outstretched arms for the Indigenous
people on land to drag
them ashore.
But, irony of ironies, the Indigenous
cannot act because they are
frozen in the poses the canon of art
history has straightjacketed them
into: the Noble Savage, the Heroic
Warrior, the Supine Maiden with
body as fertile and welcoming as
the land she lies on.
The fi gure who can and does
step to the fore — wearing a pair of
Louboutin heels no less — is gender
fl uid Miss Chief Testickle. She
is her own creation. Taut, nude
body bent forward at the waist,
rainbow-colored earring dangling,
she grasps the hand of a lone African
man whom the settlers were
bringing by force to work this land
they will rename North America.
Only fair: the African’s wrists are
manacled, his chances for survival
halved. At the African’s back is a
brown Asian man. Were this a moving
picture, the next frame might
show him, too, getting saved.
As she acts, Miss Chief Testickle
NICHOLAS BOSTON
Kent Monkman’s “Welcoming the Newcomers,” in the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 9.
locks eyes with you, the viewer.
What sense, her eyes ask, do you
make of this version of conquest,
one you’ve never seen represented
in art?
This is a description of the painting,
“Welcoming the Newcomers,”
by visual and performance artist
Kent Monkman. Eleven by 22 feet
in dimension, the canvas is one of
a pair of identically sized paintings,
together titled “mistikôsiwak
(Wooden Boat People),” installed in
the Great Hall of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, from December
17 to April 2020. The painting’s
twin, “Resurgence of the People,”
incorporates contemporary images
and themes into a reenactment of
the scene in “Washington Crossing
the Delaware” (1851) by the
German-American artist Emanuel
Leutze. Replacing Washington,
who is shown leading a boatload
of revolutionary fi ghters, Miss
Chief Testickle, striking a similar
pose, stands amongst equals who
are mostly Indigenous women and
children. The painting challenges
the Eurocentric, androcentric, heteronormative
depiction of autocratic
leadership that is a mainstay of
history painting, a stark contrast
to the communitarian, matriarchal
structure of many aboriginal
societies.
“Resurgence” also echoes “Liberty
Leading the People” (1830),
by master painter Eugène Delacroix
(in the collection of the Louvre
Museum, in Paris), which depicts
Marianne, mythic embodiment of
the French nation, holding aloft
the tricolor fl ag. Miss Chief Testickle,
representing Indigenous
nationhood, holds aloft the feather
of a large bird, a sacred symbol in
Indigenous spirituality.
Monkman, 54, is a member of
the Cree Nation. Born in the Canadian
province of Manitoba and
now based in Toronto, Monkman
addresses issues of displacement
and reclamation in his art, centering
the experiences of the First
Nations, the indigenous peoples
of Canada. Monkman inserts his
own body and personhood into
his work. Miss Chief Testickle is a
Two-Spirit (an Indigenous identity
of plural gender and sexuality) alter
ego he created through which to
make claims about art and history
as a queer Native man. Monkman
does not only render himself as
Miss Chief Testickle on the canvas,
he gives performances as Testickle
dressed in an elaborate gown the
shape of a teepee, fanciful feathered
headdress, and stiletto heels.
“I wanted an artistic persona
that could travel through time to
reverse the gaze and look back at
European settlers,” he said.
The artist gave one such performance
to a packed audience at the
Met on December 19. In it, Miss
Chief Testickle delivered a 20-minute
monologue, read theatrically
from a make-believe book of origins,
GALLERY
METMUSEUM.ORG/ COURTESY OF KENT MONKMAN
that recounted the arrival on
Earth from the heavens of a Two-
Spirit creator of the First Nations,
followed by the brutal arrival of the
colonizers.
Following the performance was
a public conversation between
Monkman as himself and Met curator
Randall Griffey, who helmed
the “mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat
People)” project. This installation
is the fi rst commission in a new
program at the museum that invites
artists to create and display
original works inspired by its permanent
collection. In addition to
the works by Leutze and Delacroix,
infl uences on Monkman’s paintings
can be seen in the work of a
pool of artists from diverse periods
and artistic traditions.
“The two paintings together really
speak about the arrivals and
migrations and displacements of
people around the world,” Monkman
said. “The Great Hall is this
place of people entering and people
leaving. Miss Chief is literally
bending over to assist people arriving
to North America. That has to
do with generosity.”
MISTIKÔSIWAK (WOODEN BOAT
PEOPLE) | Metropolitan Museum
of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. at E. 82nd
St. | Through Apr. 9: Sun.-Thu., 10
a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-9
p.m. | $25; $17 for seniors; $12 for
students; free for those under 12 |
metmuseum.org
GayCityNews.com | January 2 - January 15, 2020 17
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