Sandy Bay consists of five parts, meant to be viewed from left to right, and morphs subtly from representation to abstraction. Its narrative elements are a passage through Houle’s memory of the Sandy Bay residential school that begins with two photographs as evidence and moves through a majestic resurrection in which the school’s ghostly form seems to emerge from the landscape. It functions as text in the absence of writing, as history in the absence of official account.
Robert Houle: Making Art to Decolonize History
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Robert Houle, Sandy Bay, 1998–99
Oil on canvas, black and white photograph, colour photograph on canvas, Masonite, 300 x 548.4 cm, Winnipeg Art Gallery