MushHole: "a childhood no child should have" One disturbing show MushHole Remembered evokes powerful emotions Posted By STEVE MENHINICK Posted 1 day ago http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1287087 The works of R. Gary Miller might just form the most disturbing exhibition you will ever see. To experience the horrific imagery of his oil, pastel and mixed-media collages is to step into the world of systemic genocide of aboriginal people in North America. Miller's art is revealing on a number of levels. Primarily it is about his personal residential school experience, a time of extreme physical and sexual violence administered by people of God. The result of beatings, rapes and food deprivation traumatized Miller to the point of suicidal depression throughout his life. By removing young children from their homes, the residential school system shattered family and tribal structures, the reverberations of which are felt to this day. It is impossible to discuss any art without understanding the context in which it is made, and that is clearly the case with this work. The exhibition "MushHole Remembered" may be broadly grouped into two sections. A series of memory-based oil on canvas snapshots of children, capturing a moment in the lives of the young inmates, enables the viewer to enter the superficially benign setting that was their personal hell. Collectively these paintings may be viewed as a mural, narrating this period of Miller's life. The rest of the exhibition is more overtly expressive, with mixed-media and oil paintings. In Scream IV, an intensely emotional child's face is emphasized by a central diagonal thrust and vivid colour, as faces of more muted hues fade into the background. Angst, a mixed-media piece, skilfully superimposes a portrait onto photographic images of native status cards, which are symbolic of the control of the aboriginal by the white man. The portrait draws on a style that feels like a catharsis, with bold, expressive, oil pastel strokes in predominantly blue, yellow and orange. What was in the Mush shows two children sharing a bowl of food against a backdrop of a skull-like image emerging from a building that was their prison. We get a sense, through the subdued brown and yellow colour scheme, of a narrative of a tormented people whose experience of abuse has been documented by Miller. Significantly more soothing in its mood is Dodah, a compassionately moving portrait of an elderly woman, engaging the viewer with soulful, nostalgia- filled eyes, camly reflective. It's in stark contrast to the emotional outpouring of the other pieces, painted with choppy brushstrokes in earth tones. Siblings confronts the spectator with a disarming intensity. Here the artist employs a powerful compositional structure where the faces of children, rendered in red, yellow and blue, and painted with a force that comes directly from the heart, leaves no doubt as to the passion Miller has for his work. Miller's love of painting is a way for him to confront the pain of memories of a childhood that no child should ever have. The resulting expression of outrage can best be described as a purge. Steve Menhinick teaches visual arts at North Park Collegiate and is a practising artist. - - - NOW SHOWING What:MushHole Remembered, oils, pastels and mixed-media collages by R. Gary Miller Where:Woodland Cultural Centre, 184 Mohawk St., Brantford, ON When:Until Dec. 24 Article ID# 1287087