Canada's Flag in London

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The Group of Seven fuelled Canadian nationalism a century ago with paintings of the untamed forest. The patriotism evoked by those trees was distilled in 1965 to a single red maple leaf that became our flag. Today, at the 150th anniversary of Confederation, we see artists deconstructing that flag.

“This reduction of landscape to symbol continues to be investigated by Canadian artists,” Lindsey Sharman, curator of the Founders’ Gallery at the Military Museums in Calgary, says in a catalogue for an exhibition she has organized for Canada House in London.

Felled Trees, which includes work by five artists, was to open June 6, but has been postponed due to the latest terrorist attack in London, which killed seven people. The exhibition, now expected to open later this month and run until Sept. 3,  grew out of another one curated by Sharman in 2015 at the Founders' Gallery that presented silkscreen prints of landscapes by the likes of Emily Carr, David Milne and the Group of Seven.

These prints were sent to overseas facilities for Canadian soldiers during the Second World War and were later used in banks, schools and other public buildings at home.

The exhibition Barracks to Banks: Canadian Silkscreens for War and Peace included a contemporary painting by West Coast artist Marianne Nicolson, Lament for National Histories. The painting’s two red side panels refer to the Canadian flag. Various aspects of contemporary life, from our relations with China to the Alberta oil sands, pop up in the painting.

Felled Trees includes Nicolson’s painting and four other works:

  • Regina artist David Garneau, in Surface Tension, has painted a Canadian flag atop an American one to make a point about the cultural dynamic between the two countries.
  • Diana Thorneycroft, of Winnipeg, covers similar territory in a photographed diorama of Canadian gymnasts, with their flag, unsuccessfully competing against Americans. The work is called NRA Sponsored Rhythmic Gymnastics Competition (Team USA performs while Canada and France look on).
  • Bloodmountains is a looped video of digitally created mountains by Toronto artist Alex McLeod. The only colours are the flag’s red and white.
  • Cheeky as ever, Charles Pachter, of Toronto, substitutes the familiar striped Hudson’s Bay blanket for the flag in a painting called Bay Watch, which reflects on Canadian commerce.

Sharman has prepared a second simultaneous exhibition, Taking Root, for Canada House of seven of the aforementioned historical silkscreens. The artists include Emily Carr, Lawren Harris and Yvonne McKague Housser.