Ceci N'est Pas Une Pipe
24" x 36", acrylic on canvas
 
Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist who painted the “The Treachery of Images” in 1929. In this and many of his works, he attempted the subversion of rational thought. I want to expand on the pushing of boundaries of reality and representation of the world as I see it. I think its important to examine the nature of language of the museological system through the lens of its own history with Indigenous people.  In my commentary on Magritte’s painting, the viewer is again invited to consider whether the image is or isn’t a pipe, but now the image has become either a treasured artifact without any historical context or place of meaning, or it is a sacred item central to Anishinaabe ceremony and culture. Whether his is a representation of an object or not, Magritte’s pipe is accessible in any smoke shop for anyone who wishes to use one. Because of the theft that has created collections with a lack of engagement in the Indigenous realities that these items once inhabited, I question whether this is indeed a pipe, or if it is even a representation of a pipe. The value of ancestral Indigenous objects is assessed by anthropologists who lock these displaced items in institutions behind glass cases for the gaze of the settler. In doing so, we become simple relics of the past. Many Indigenous people do not have access to tools and objects that are their birthright and property, and this creates an instability of understanding and fully participating in our cultures.