Nationality Mohawk Nation Known for Native American art | Movement Haudenosaunee art Name Babe Carla | |
Full Name Donald Hemlock and Carla Notable work Tribute to Mohawk Ironworkers | ||
Babe and Carla Hemlock are an Kahnawake Mohawk husband-and-wife artistic team from Kahnawake Mohawk Nation Territory near Montreal. Babe specializes in woodcarving, and Carla focuses on textile artists; however, they work in a range of different artistic media.
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Background
Carla, born 1961, is from Kahnawake near Montreal, Quebec. Babe, also born in 1961, grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He is a fourth generation Mohawk ironworker.
Art career
Both of Hemlocks relay Mohawk culture and history through their artwork. Babe carved and painted Walking in Two Worlds, and Carla created a quilt Tribute to Mohawk Ironworkers, which combined beadwork and appliquéd figured inspired by Charles Ebbets' iconic 1932 photograph of Mohawk men perched on a suspended I-beam. These pay homage to the late-19th century and 20th-century Mohawk construction workers, who helped build the highrises of New York City, including the Empire State Building. Her quilt, Haudenosaunee Passport, addresses the sovereignty of the Haudenosaunee Nations that predate Canada and the United States of America.
Babe constructs wooden cradleboards that he carves and paints with his own artistic imagery. “He’s really addressing stereotypes and identity issues," says Bruce Hartman, director of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2013, the couple collaborated on a cradleboard focused on the aboriginal game of lacrosse, which won the 2013 Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Classification for Diverse Art Forms.
The couple won Best of Classification for Diverse Art Forms at the Santa Fe Indian Market again in 2014.
While the Hemlocks use political imagery in their artwork—for instance, questioning the long term effects of fracking—they also use aboriginal Iroquoian imagery. For instance, Carla uses images of turtles in her quilts.