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My Daily Art

Rosalie Favell. I awoke to find my spirit had returned, from the series Plain(s) Warrior Artist, 1999. Giclée print on paper, 118.5 x 87 cm. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Acquired with the Photography Endowment of The Winnipeg Art Gallery Foundation Inc., 2001-12. Photo: Ernest Mayer, courtesy of the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Winnipeg-born Rosalie Favell often incorporates material from family photo albums and popular culture and media to document her experience as an Indigenous woman and artist.

In the 1999 work, “I awoke to find my spirit returned” in the WAG collection, Favell asserts her Metis identity by creating her own tableau of the film, The Wizard of Oz. Playing Dorothy, who has just returned from the land of Oz, the artist lies in bed underneath a Hudson’s Bay Company trading blanket while a Hollywood family watches over her, and Louis Riel checks in on her through the window.

The title of the piece is a direct reference to Riel’s famous statement: “My people will sleep for 100 years, and when they awake it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.”

While the WAG is temporarily closed, your collection is still here for you. Stay connected with the art through daily posts from our Director & CEO, Dr. Stephen Borys.

This is a series of daily posts that will continue until the Gallery reopens. Follow along on InstagramFacebook, and Twitter, or visit our stories section.

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One thought on "My Daily Art"

Ruth Swan says:

Thanks for showing this piece. I love the idea of the artist from Winnipeg as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and love to see Louis Riel as a guardian spirit over the artists. Winnipeg has a lot in common with Kansas as we are on the Great Plains. I like the HBC blanket which anchors the piece and we identify with the symbolism. Good choice for a local artist.

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