Bead Making Workshop

On Saturday, 8 March, a dozen members of the Cultural Studies Research Group joined artist Rebecca Belmore to help in the creation of her latest installation, TRACE, commissioned by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Using clay unearthed in construction sites throughout Winnipeg, Belmore is in the process of hand-crafting 10 000 plus individual clay beads to be shaped into a 30 X 20 foot blanket to hang on the museum’s walls. CSRG members and students were each given several pieces of clay, which they sculpted into large beads bearing their handprint and finger impressions. Belmore’s use of the blanket motif and local clay speaks to both the colonial legacy of the HBC blanket and the location and excavation of the land on which the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is being built. By utilizing specific materials and forms, and involving the community in the creation of her work, Belmore hopes that TRACE will help to “acknolwedge the land the museum sits upon and the city itself” (Canadian Art)