During her Koerner Visiting Artist residency at Queen’s University in 2003, Rebecca Belmore created this rubbing from the base of the Sir John A. MacDonald monument in Kingston’s City Park. With each successive rubbing, the artist eliminated a key word from MacDonald’s well-known quote, completely stripping his allegiance to nation and Empire to the irreducible fact of his temporary existence. Belmore has stated, “As someone who grew up with very little access to our history through the education system – I feel compelled to witness and articulate and in some way visually mark current history.”