This catalogue documents an artist-in-residence project by nationally and internationally acclaimed artist of Anishinaabe descent Rebecca Belmore at the Blackwood Gallery in 2001, which was curated by then Director/Curator Barbara Fischer. Named 33 Pieces after the 33 pieces of the human spine, this exhibition by Rebecca Belmore presented a series of new, interrelated works based on past and ongoing concerns in her performance and installation works. Transforming the gallery into a temporary studio, the exhibition took shape in the form of residual or newly made sculptural and auditory works. The catalogue documents this project and additionally includes essays by Dot Tuer and Barbara Fischer, as well as the first published performance chronology and complete exhibition and publications listing for Belmore.

Rebecca Belmore has been making work as a performance artist for nearly fifteen years. But due to the nature of the medium—usually a singular event—only those who know the artist well can glean the depth and intensity of that work. When I asked her if she might be interested in developing an exhibition specifically centred on her performances (through objects and documents), it gradually became clear that this was not an appropriate avenue for her. Documentation of her performances in photography or video had always been incidental, if not altogether secondary. Where it existed, it had been initiated by others. The concerns of Belmore’s work, I learned, lie elsewhere: in a particular place, with a particular audience and in relation to particular contextual, historical and “imagined” geographies.11Marilyn Burgess, “The Imagined Geographies of Rebecca Belmore,” Parachute 93 \(Jan./Feb./Mar. 1999\), 12–20. This essay is the most thorough discussion of Belmore’s work to date.

The proposed exhibition, therefore, evolved into an artist-in-residence project where the gallery served as temporary studio and became a socially active space for its entire situation. Named after the thirty-three pieces of the human spinal column, the exhibition situated past works as the invisible point of departure (the backbone) for a series of new works in diverse media. The new works represent aspects of Belmore’s ongoing personal and political interests as an artist of Anishinabe descent, her concerns with actualities rather than abstractions.

—Introduction to “Appearing Acts: Rebecca Belmore’s 33 Pieces” by Barbara Fischer

Appearing Acts: Rebecca Belmore’s 33 Pieces p. 9
Barbara Fischer

Performing Memory: The Art of Storytelling in the Work of Rebecca Belmore p. 29
Dot Tuer

Rebecca Belmore Performance Chronology p. 40
Compiled by Jessie Caryl

List of Works: 33 Pieces p. 44

Acknowledgments p. 45

Rebecca Belmore
Barbara Fischer
Dot Tuer

To order any of our publications, please send an email including title(s), number of copies, and your mailing address to: blackwood.gallery[at]utoronto.ca.

A 20% discount is available to students and members of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries.