Going beyond the archival grid: Carl Beam and Greg Curnoe’s decolonization of a colonizing space

Abstract

A number of artists working in Canada have focused on the archive as a space that requires decolonization. This paper examines key archival artworks made by Anishinaabe artist Carl Beam (1943–2005) and settler-Canadian artist Greg Curnoe (1936–92). Though these artists approached the archive and decolonization from markedly different positions, both made work from which an epistemological shift occurred for themselves and their viewers. I argue that their works demonstrate the relevance of the archive as a site from which a decolonial future can emerge.