Diptych, two stretched canvases, each 36H x 36W x 1.25D"
Statement By Gail Tremblay:
This work is a reflection on the hunger for “American” wealth and resources that the conquistadors and subsequent waves of colonizers had, a hunger that led them to come to these continents and to commit genocide against the Indigenous peoples from the thousands of nations who inhabited the lands from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego before the conquest. The painting reveals the wealth hidden beneath the skin of the land that haunted the imaginations of the greedy. To enrich themselves, the peoples who settled and started the states that now inhabit the “Americas” invented theories like Manifest Destiny to make themselves feel justified as they stole land and enslaved and worked other people to death to achieve what they felt was their God given right to own other people’s territories. It reflects on the way in which glamour and beauty can be used to mask unspeakable cruelty.