by Isabelle Segui
John Fleming Award in Decorative Arts Writing
The CSDA/CCAD presented Isabelle Segui with the second John Fleming Award in Decorative Arts Writing. This annual, $1,000 juried award recognizes an exceptional example of original magazine writing on decorative arts in Canada from an emerging author. For more information on John Fleming and the Award go to: https://csda-ccad.org/Awards.
LIZ MAGOR’S BLANKET SERIES DISTURBS SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS of what objects, and in
this case, point blankets, can and should be. Using long-forgotten blankets found in thrift stores, Magor breathes new life into the discarded and the seemingly mundane, valuing objects not for their beauty but for their disrepair and histories of use (Fig. 1). Magor’s work grapples with meaning, considering how objects can remain relevant despite their abandonment. Through Magor’s use of point blankets, she centers notions of gendered and national identity found within Canadian material culture, in turn drawing attention to the reconsideration of commonplace symbols in the 21st century.
Regarding her choice of blankets, Magor states, “I started to buy wool blankets at thrift stores. Not the collectible ones, but the dirtiest and most moth-eaten. I valued the ones that had some evidence of repair. The repairs were like little notes, reminders of the early life of the blanket when it was still needed.”(1) By highlighting the blankets’ lives rather than those who used them, Magor gives the inanimate agency through identity. In a 2012 interview, Magor explained her thought process:
My first thought was: Can the blankets stay alive if they get bigger, if their holes are repaired, if they get cleaner, if they try a little harder? What kind of debris is left in a blanket? Dog hair, cat hair, human hair—what if I think of these as decorative? . . . If there was a stain, I stained it more. I put all the labels backwards, erasing the marketing, the shops. I accentuated moth holes. I made the blankets bigger by adding pieces in a very unstrategic way.(2)
Magor does not fix flaws but instead accentuates them. This emphasis encourages not only an acknowledgement of an object's physical deterioration but of its symbolic flaws as well: Magor’s blankets stand on their own and tell their own stories.
Through a romanticization of the fur trade, exploration, and adventure, the Hudson’s Bay blanket is a nostalgic Canadian symbol: no other English trade good is so associated with Canadian history and colonialism. The Hudson’s Bay Company had an integral role in Canadian colonial geographic and economic expansion through the establishment of Hudson’s Bay trading posts. These hundreds of trading posts—some factories, forts, or even cities—facilitated the fur trade under the British Crown in Rupert’s Land and the Northwest Territories for two hundred years, exchanging beaver pelts for manufactured goods, including wool point blankets.(3) For settlers, the Hudson’s Bay blankets act as markers of this colonial history, pointing to the themes of freedom, exploration, and opportunity surrounding Canada’s sanitized national image. Magor’s blankets, however, are old, worn, damaged, and abandoned, removed from their previous lives, and reevaluated for what they are formally. At first, they appear ordinary; however, upon closer inspection, viewers notice labels are flipped inside out and blankets stitched haphazardly together to make them unrecognizable, contrasting the comfortable with the disturbing. Through the accentuation of these flaws, Magor critiques the use of material culture in the construction of national identity.
Fig. 2 (top): Kent Monkman, The Daddies, 2016. Acrylic on canvas. Collection of Christine Armstrong and Irfhan Rawji. Courtesy of the artist.
Fig. 3 (bottom): Rex Woods after Robert Harris 1883, The Fathers of Confederation, 1968, Oil on canvas. © House of Commons Collection, Ottawa
The Hudson’s Bay blanket is iconic, but for many Indigenous people, it does not represent national identity and pride but colonial violence.(4) For example, Kent Monkman’s 2016 painting Daddies (Fig. 2) includes the Hudson’s Bay point blanket as a symbol of imperialism and colonization. His work is a reconfiguration of the 1884 Robert Harris painting, The Fathers of Confederation (Fig. 3). In Monkman’s work, however, his alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle sits nude on a Hudson’s Bay blanket addressing the men whose negotiations led to the Dominion of Canada. In 2011, the same year Liz Magor worked on her blanket series, Rebecca Belmore created the video installation The Blanket (Figs. 4-5). The film depicts a woman draped in a red Hudson’s Bay point blanket rolling in the snow. In this work, the blanket is a reminder of the spread of smallpox throughout Indigenous communities. Liz Magor thus worked on her blanket series at a time in which Indigenous artists held the history of the Hudson’s Bay point blanket up for critique. Due to Liz Magor’s position as a white Canadian woman, her relationships with these blankets contrast greatly with those of her Indigenous contemporaries. Magor’s work is introspective, revising settler associations with the Hudson’s Bay blanket by questioning its status, cultural significance, and societal acceptance as an icon of Canadian national identity. This inquiry isolates previously loved objects and forces viewers to see the blankets and their status as objects more formally.
Hudson’s Bay Double (Figs. 6-7), for example, is made of black wool instead of the traditional striped patterns of iconic Hudson’s Bay blankets. This difference, in association with this piece's name, suggests an abandonment of tradition, a disregard for previous measures of value, and a renewed identity. The reversed and inverted stitching of labels and moth holes rimmed in a contrasting white allude to the holes present in these constructions. Maple Leaf, a piece comprised of multiple blankets stitched together as one, further complicates questions of Canadian identity (Figs. 1 and 8). The maple leaf stitched inside out in the bottom right corner of the work is barely noticeable. The overturned maple leaf challenges associations between these blankets and national identity while linking it to greater cultural and political associations.
In works such as Moth-proofed (Figs. 9-10) and Alberta/Quebec (Fig. 11), themes of disrepair and damage dominate. Red stains spot Alberta/Quebec and various labels are stitched inside out; however, a plastic dry-cleaning bag covers the top of the work. These elements create an interesting contradiction: the misapplied labels and staining amplify its deterioration, while the dry-cleaning bag preserves these flaws. The work's name, Alberta/Quebec, further signifies the two provinces’ desire for sovereignty and separation from Canada. This, in turn, suggests Canada’s disunified political climate—a sentiment that directly opposes the nationalist significance represented by the Hudson’s Bay blanket.
Similarly, in Moth-Proofed, Magor highlights moth holes with copper stitching, making her repairs beautiful, visible, and, as the dry-cleaning bag attests, cared-for. Moth-proofed is particularly intriguing in this regard: although the holes are stitched, they are not fully mended. These interventions show the work put into maintaining important objects. By not repairing the damage, Magor points out its presence and the attempts to fix it. In this way, she subtly alludes to the discomfort that comes with recognizing the dark histories connected to deeply colonial symbols such as the Hudson’s Bay blanket.
Liz Magor’s blanket series highlights the importance and beauty of embracing disrepair. She collects and displays her blankets in a state of unbecoming. In the thrift store and art gallery, the blankets are removed from their intended contexts and exist in a purgatorial state. By displaying her blankets in this in-between state, Magor presents them objectively; their holes, rips, and stains are evidence of life and history. The use of blankets as objects of comfort and warmth and the tactility of their hand-sewn repairs are interwoven with notions of womanhood and the body. The status of the blankets as found objects, abandoned yet previously used and loved, parallels the emotional and physical labour and sacrifice expected of women as wives, mothers, and nurturers. This labour leaves these women changed, used, and, in many cases, devalued by others. Through such references, these blankets demonstrate an acceptance of the visibility of aging.
Figs. 7 and 8 (top, left to right): Liz Magor, Hudson’s Bay Double, 2011, wool, fabric, metal, polymerized gypsum, wood, 163 x 399 cm, Catriona Jefferies Gallery, Vancouver // Liz Magor, Maple Leaf, 2011, wool, Dye, Fabric, metal, plastic, thread, 147 x 62 x 10 cm, Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid, Catriona Jefferies Gallery, Vancouver.
Figs. 9 and 10 (bottom, left to right): Liz Magor, Moth-Proofed, 2011, wool, hair, metal, plastic, polymerized gypsum, 168 x 58 x 7 cm, Photograph by Tori Hafkenscheid, Catriona Jefferies Gallery.
Magor’s work with these blankets is incredibly thoughtful, allowing for a multitude of connections and interpretations. She spends time investigating the individual provenance of each object and the story it reveals not only about itself but also of its world. Magor chooses to amplify the normalcy of mundane objects to subvert ideas of nationalism, materialism, and art. Threaded into these blankets are new ideas and references open to thought and interpretation. Dependent on the viewer's perspective, her blankets take on a variety of meanings emphasizing consumerism, Canadian nationalism, colonialism, the body, and womanhood. Through her interventions in these objects, Magor implores viewers to consider these objects in their lives, their individuality, and their ability to record identity.
Isabelle Segui is an emerging writer and curator based in Toronto, Ontario. A recent Masters of Art History and Visual Culture graduate from York University, her research explores Canadian material culture through the study of feminist and decolonial textile art. Her academic research influences her curatorial practice, including her work on several contemporary art exhibitions and within her current position as an Assistant Curator at Casa Loma. _________________________________
Endnotes
Magor to Rachel Rosenfield-Lafo, "The Potency of Ordinary Objects: A Conversation with Liz Magor," Sculpture Magazine, November 2012, 39.
Ibid.
Michelle Filice, “HBC Trading Posts in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada. July 7, 2023. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hbc-trading-posts-in-canada
Regan Shrumm, "Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket," The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada. December 18, 2018. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hudson-s-bay-point-blanket#:~:text=The%20Hudson's%20Bay%20Poinwhat%20t%20Blanket,Company%20(HBC)%20in%201779.
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