Rebecca Belmore

Belmore’s performances bring to the fore the complexity of associations and issues with remarkable incisiveness, penetrating the surface of complacency like a sharp knife slipped under soft flesh. Her considered materiality, and attention to the meaning of place make the hidden real…

Through powerful images that implicate the body, performances that address history and memory, and gestures that evoke a sense of place, Rebecca Belmore is known for creating multi-disciplinary works that reveal a long-standing commitment to the politics of identity and representation…

Working for forty-five minutes, using a salvaged piece of west coast timber, buckets of sand from nearby Spanish Banks, six Desert Storm shirts purchased from an army surplus store, a hammer, some nails, and the sound of pow-wow music emanating from my truck. – I set out to make, to build, to destroy, and to raise – my thoughts about war.  Driving nails through the camouflage fabric and into what used to be a majestic tree – I assaulted, soothed and shaped a personal version of a memorial pole with the setting sun and then working in the headlights of my own vehicle… making, making always war.

Artist statement and works

The Named and Unnamed