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Stephen Harper Hates Me

He haunts her artist’s studio and cavorts in menacing and satiric ways with the dolls that were once de Montmollin’s dominant artistic focus. “I wanted people to see Harper’s contempt for the ordinary person as well as for the artist,” de Montmollin says. “And I wanted to use humour as a sharp tool to make my point.” (from The Fantastic, Fearless and Furious World of Gabrielle de Montmolllin by Susan Swan ©2013)

 

Artist Statement: How it started

Along with everyone else in Canada I already knew that Stephen Harper was contemptuous of artists, not to mention ignorant of how artists really live.** And as a women I was appalled that he was cutting funding to every organization which might benefit us or protect our rights but the turning point for me, and the start of this series, was the G20 weekend in Toronto in June 2010.

I was working on a photocopy book featuring my usual assortment of dolls and animals when the rage inside me mixed with the helplessness I felt at what was happening to my hometown spilled over and I started pasting photocopies of Stephen Harper’s face in the midst of my montages.

My anger and frustration has never gone away and so I work at finding ways to express what I feel through my art.

 


**“I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people." Stephen Harper, campaigning in Saskatoon, September 23, 2008
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