The Globe and Mail Chris Hampton Published February 19, 2021
Don Hal/Handout
Do you remember the opening scene from
Raiders of the Lost Ark? It’s when Indiana Jones tries to swipe the golden idol from atop its temple altar by trading it for a bag of sand. This story is its moral sequel.
In September, 2019, Winnipeg-based artist Divya Mehra was in Regina. She had been invited there for a site visit at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in preparation for an exhibition featuring some of her work that was to open in the springtime.
“I was interested in learning more about the space, its history and its collection,” the artists says. So she had dedicated some time for research. Her attention was caught by a printed item discussing the gallery’s namesake, Norman MacKenzie – a prominent lawyer, prolific traveller and buff of art and antiquities – and his collection, whose 1936 bequest served as the inception of the museum. It mentioned travel to India, where MacKenzie had acq