CULTURAL DIALECTICS october 1997 / planet of the arts 23 intervening in the Colonizing Gaze (Re)presenting Our Home and Native Land Imperialism, Eurocentric modernism, and the gaze of early Canadian painters. by ze Bebris he painted and photographed image of the Canadian landscape has been histor- ically the means by which we define our- selves. We live with the legacy of the Group of Seven, whose nationalist project of creat- ing a Canadian identity based on landscape images was enormously successful. Their images of the untamed and unpeopled North dominated Canadian landscape painting and the popular imag- ination for the greater part of the twentieth century and contributed to the Canadian mythology which identifies us as people of a frozen, lonely, and inhos- pitable paradise in the north. Although the wholesale exploitation of natural resources and the process of industrialization have made the image of the Canadian landscape as a pristine wilderness a lie, the romanticized landscape continues to function as the locus of our desire for a simpler life, a site where renewal, rebirth and ulti- mately salvation are still possible. Our relationship to the natural world has become increasingly tenuous as our society and cul- ture have become increasingly urban. Nature, which was once our home, is now a site that we visit for recreation, a backdrop for our pleasures. Our desire to be soothed by a timeless and unproblematic landscape grows proportionately as the natural world becomes an increasingly contested and imperiled site. As the pristine Canadian wilderness is besieged, landscape images of an ordered, unproblematic and aestheticized nature serve to allay temporarily our fears of an irrevocable loss of the natural world. These images disclose a subtext of cultural dreams, desires and myths that are part of the cultural grid that overlays the natural world that lies ‘out there’. These images are not nature but a translation of the natural world, part of a cultural discourse, a cultural construct. Landscape representation then, is not neutral. It is a set of codes and tropes which position the view- er in a certain set of relations to the land. If landscape is the manifestation of the domi- nant political order, as J.B. Jackson asserts in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (Yale University Press, 1984), then representations of the landscape can tell us much about the history of place as well as shed light on the underlying ideolo- gies and assumptions that are the source of contest- ed claims on the land. Landscape images, far from being neutral, are a complex code of signs that dis- close a political order and affirm the viewer’s posi- tion within that order. Landscape, then, is both a cultural discourse and representation of a real place. It is a discourse that shuttles between the real, the imagined and the desired. The political order of colonialism is reflected in its cultural practices, landscape imagery being one of the more popular cultural practices in the eigh- teenth century. The visual language of colonialism is rooted in the eighteenth century tradition of landscape painting. The land and its inhabitants are represented in the aesthetic of the picturesque tra- dition, a tradition which romanticizes the peasant and his simple way of life and places him in an imaginary harmony with nature. This mode of rep- resentation of the humble and familiar English countryside became the dominant way of seeing and representing the landscape. It coincided with the growth of colonialism and was the way in which the new territories, whether the Americas or Australia and New Zealand, were represented. The colonizing gaze also informed the percep- tions of native born Canadian artists. Not until the early twentieth century did Canadian painters establish what could be considered their own dis- tinct Canadian voice. But this too was a vision that reflected the deeply-ingrained values of imperialism and Euro-centric modernism. The picturesque, however, was more than a question of style. It functioned to obscure the cul- tural upheaval taking place in eighteenth-century England due to the enclosure of what had once been common land. One consequence of land being increasingly enclosed in large private holdings was that the landscape became an aestheticized object. “Precisely when the countryside — or at least large portions of it — was becoming unrecognizable, and dramatically marked by historical change, it was offered as the image of the homely, the stable, the ahistorical.”' Much as the natural world has become fetishized today in our rush to embrace a ‘vanishing wilderness, so too, was nature romanticized in the eighteenth century, obscuring the actual violence of the new order and projecting an unproblematic world in which the humble peasant lived in harmo- ny with the natural world. The countryside was aes- theticized and idealized, in contrast to a social real- ity of upheaval, poverty and displacement. Landscape painting was valued for its ability to reflect nature and nature in its turn was valued because it was picturesque. “The highest praise for nature was to say that it looked like a painting, the highest praise for a painting was to say that it resem- bled a painterly nature?” Painting became a sign for nature only to have nature replaced by its painterly simulacrum. Cultural practices such as landscape gardening and landscape representation were val- orized when they complied with a certain culturally determined ‘naturalness. “Naturalness’ then, was equally a cultural construct and self-reinforcing practice. The colonizing gaze “erases its idealizing signs by naturalizing them and allows what is erased to still stand as an informing presence.”” The colonizing gaze reflects an ideology steeped in the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the natural world was increasingly viewed in mechanistic terms, nature was seen more as a machine, as insen- sate, an object for study rather than a coherent and mysterious force. This mechanistic view of the world, supported by a Christian ideology of stew- ardship/mastery over the natural world dovetailed with the ideology of colonialism. In addition to claiming land for the Empire and providing natural resources for its consumption, British colonialism carried a moral imperative to Missing Nature — installation lize Bebris IN THIS SECTION CULTURAL DIALECTICS 25 is “Tourist Art” The Real Thing? Rand Berthaudin Reflections on why tourist art is more popular than ever. 28 Picture Worth 1,000 Words Christine Carter A draw-up of yet another Hollywood stinker. ~ CULTURAL DIALECTICS october 1997 / plonet of the orts 23 Intervening in the Colonizing Gaze (Re)presenting Our Home and Native Land Imperialism, Eurocentric modernism, and the gaze of early Canadian painters. by lize Bebris ae pained and photographed image of the Canadian landscape as ben histor ically the means by which we define ou selves We live with the legacy of the Group of Seven, whose nationalist project of creat: ing a Canadian identity based on landscape images was enormously succesful, Their images of the untamed and unpeopled North dominated ‘Canadian landsape painting andthe popula imag ination forthe greater part ofthe twentieth century and contributed tothe Canadian mythology which ‘entifies us as people of frozen, only and inhos Pitable paradise in the north, Although the wholesale exploitation of natural resources and the process of industrialzation have ‘made the image ofthe Canadian landscape as a pristine wildemessa lie, the romanticized landscape continues to function asthe locus of our desire for a simpler lea ite where renewal, rebirth and ult rately sation aes possible ‘Our ‘elationship to the natural world has become increasingly tenuous as our society and cl turehave become increasingly urban. Nature, which ‘was once our homes now a site that we visit for recreation, a backdrop for our pleasures, Our desire to be soothed by a timeless and unproblematic landscape grows proportionately as the natural world becomes an increasingly contested. and mpi st. As the pristine Canadian wilderness fs besieged, landscape images of an ordered unproblematic and aesheticized nature serve to ally temporarily our fears ofan irrevocable los of the natural worl. These images disclose a subtext ‘of cultural dreams, desires and myths that are part ofthe cultural grid that overlays the natural work that lis ‘out there’ These images are not nature but ‘translation of the mat work, pat ofa cultural discourse, a cultural constrict Landsape representation then, not neutral: {a set of codes and tropes which poston the view rin a certain set of relations othe land I landscape is the manifestation of the domi nant political onder, a5 JB. 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