This artwork by Sonny Assu exemplifies the artist’s distinct practice of merging Northwest Coast Indigenous iconography with the visual language of Western art history. The underlying scene references Emily Carr’s canvas, Guyasdoms D'Sonoqua, circa 1930, in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The subject in the Carr painting is D'Sonoqua (Dzunu??wa), the Kwakwaka’wakw "Wild Woman of the Woods," a figure from Indigenous mythology. Assu overlays it with bold blue forms drawn from Northwest Coast design. This approach aligns closely with Assu’s broader body of “interventions,” in which he digitally overlays Indigenous motifs onto paintings shaped by a historical gaze. These interventions are rooted in reclaiming visibility within cultural narratives. The three dimensionality and saturated colour of the blue forms contrast with the historical tones of the original painting, asserting a contemporary Indigenous presence.

This work was on loan at the Audain Art Museum in the installation “Sonny Assu & Emily Carr: Conversing Cultures” in 2019.