The artwork titled “Miss Chief’s Wet Dream,” created by Kent Monkman in 2018, employs acrylic on canvas and represents a synthesis of Classical Realism and Postcolonial art movements. The genre of the piece falls under figurative and nude painting (nu).
The artwork presents a dynamic and tumultuous scene set on a choppy, stormy sea under a foreboding sky. Within the composition, numerous figures, both Indigenous and European, engage in a chaotic confrontation. The central figure appears to be an Indigenous warrior, standing resolutely in a canoe, drawing a bow, ready to release an arrow towards an off-canvas target. Other Indigenous figures, adorned in traditional and fantastical regalia, populate the canoes and rafts, some actively participating in the melee, while others appear more passive. European figures, dressed in 18th-century attire and some partially nude, occupy a precarious raft, illustrating a scene of disarray and vulnerability. The overall narrative of the artwork suggests themes of colonization, struggle, and reclaiming of indigenous identity, rendered through detailed, vivid, and provocative imagery.
