Bob Boyer: His Life's Work

Transcript

Carol Phillips: I like this painting for many, many reasons. First of all in this particular exhibition, it’s one of the few shield shapes and it’s a very charming work but at the same time it has great memories for me.

It was the early 80’s at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in its previous location. We organized an exhibition of the work of Bob Boyer along with Edward Poitras and there was a long debate over what the title of the exhibition was going to be.

Bob had entitled this particular work – Horses Fly Too? There was an amazing installation by Edward Poitras which was several horse shapes that were sort of harnessed into an installation – magnificent work.

Of course the idea of the horse and the importance of the horse to Aboriginal history, Plains Indians are well known and it reflected in Bob’s art in a variety of ways. But this title of this painting became the title of the whole exhibition – Horses Fly Too? I think it became another marker for the evolution of Bob’s work. The exhibition was at the MacKenzie and it also went to Thunder Bay to the gallery there. His painting was often an inspiration but this time the title was an inspiration as well.