Seeing Red 2014

Kent Monkman made "Seeing Red" with a paintbrush on what looks like a very large canvas. I wonder about the moment he decided to put Miss Chief Eagle Testickle in this painting. The colors are vivid – a bright sky, and then pops of red from the bull, the matador’s outfit, and, horribly, the fire from that burning car. What was it like for Monkman to set up these colours so that they clash? How might we read them together? I mean, look at that bull – the brushstrokes on the bull’s fur are done with such care, but then there is a crude white mark painted on its side. It’s all so theatrical and strange – a total drama! I wonder if Monkman sees painting as a kind of performance. It feels like he is using the canvas as a stage, and we, as the viewers, are invited to interpret the spectacle. I hope that the strangeness of it all might inspire us to rethink and reimagine our understanding of history and representation.