Lance Belanger

Curated by: Carol Podedworny

7 January 1993 - 13 February 1993

Main Gallery:

Neolithic Tango

Mercer Union is pleased to present an installation by Ottawa artist, Lance Belanger titled Neolithic Tango, curated by Carol Podedworny. This is the second solo exhibition in a series of three intending to address issues of marginalization and history-making, first articulated in Podedworny’s earlier curatorial project, Rethinking History which was mounted at Mercer Union in the Spring of 1992.

Belanger’s work involves the identification of extinct cultures and the recuperation of their histories through the use of cultural ‘objects’. For Neolithic Tango the objects are lithic spheres or stone balls and refer to similar objects found in the burial sites of indigenous peoples (Taino, Arawak and Carib) of the Caribbean. The cultural significance of these objects is unclear and open to conjecture, but what is known is that they are found in great numbers in Hispanola (the Dominican Republic) where the Taino lived and where they were exterminated after being ‘discovered’ by Columbus. Thus the resurrection and animation of these artifacts challenges us to remember and never forget these events from the ‘past’.

Lance Belanger lives and works in Ottawa. His solo exhibitions include those at the Paiewonsky Gallery, Santo Domingo and The Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society, Regina. Group exhibitions include Point’s of View, The Community Gallery, New York City, Nistum, Vik Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta and most recently Indegina, Museum of Civilization, Ottawa, Ontario.