Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

In Canadian contemporary art, hockey is a metaphor through which to challenge patterns of cultural, gender, and racial inclusivity and exclusivity. In Deicing/Decolonizing: Hockey Histories in Canadian Contemporary Art, the notion that hockey parallels national identity politics is the subject of critical debate. Inspired by sociologist Jean Harvey’s argument that hockey is symbolic, my research translates the sport into a discourse of the imaginary; “… hockey does speak to issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and region in this nation, albeit not in an entirely positive manner. For this reason, hockey moves beyond symbol and becomes a metaphoric representation of Canadian identity.” With reference to works by Kent Monkman, Judy Anderson, and Hazel Meyer, amongst others, I am proposing new narratives through which to interpret hockey vis-à-vis the politics of colonialism, gender, violence, and the media. Drawing from Western histories that continue to frame the sport, spirituality in First Nations communities, and the notion that hockey represents an imperialist conquest, sculptures by Monkman and Anderson offer new perspectives on the game; its history of exclusivity, and its national misconceptions. Through a feminist lens, the inherent patriarchy that continues to frame hockey is destabilized through material investigations of hockey equipment and representations of the game by women artists who also play hockey, such as Liz Pead and Liss Platt.