Sun, Oct 03, 1999 page20

• Indian, Inuit artists shine in Tainan show

  A traveling exhibition of contemporary Canadian indigenous art dispels misconceptions of the `primitive' and exotic

  • By Susan Kendzulak / SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
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  It was commonly believed in the West -- and may still be believed -- that the art of the native peoples of North America was primitive and exotic, distinctly inferior to Euro-American art.

  "Transitions," an exhibition of paintings, sculptures and mixed-media works created by Indian and Eskimo artists, attempts to dispel those preconceptions.

  This traveling exhibition of contemporary Canadian Indian and Inuit art that showcased at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum this past spring was shown alongside works by artists from the indigenous tribes of Taiwan. However, the smaller Tainan space where it is currently showing can only accommodate the 24 works by the Canadian artists.

  

  Marianne Nicholson, Excerpt From A House of God.

  Many of them use traditional materials, such as fossilized whalebone, caribou antler, seal skin and embroidery, and combine it with modern materials, such as acrylic paint, sepia toner, photographs and computer circuit boards. The exhibition rejects the myth that indigenous art is a fossilized artifact and instead shows that the various indigenous cultures in North America are alive and flourishing.

  Mainly dealing with issues of identity and exploring what it means to be an Indian, the artists mix Indian images and techniques with Western art materials and styles. The result is contemporary art unique to their culture despite the Western influences.

  For Transitions, the work of the 13 Inuit artists doesn't seem as overtly political as their Indian counterparts, but since they are using power tools instead of hand tools and are not creating the typical touristy images of polar bears, their work is subtle yet subversive. The majority of the Inuit artists has carved sculptures out of stone or bone to depict their sense of spirituality or their connection with the land.

  

  Janet Kigusiuq, Baker Lake Landscape.

  Walrus Composition (1996) by Jobie Arnaituk is a sculpture made of walrus skull, caribou antler and soapstone that conveys the fierce power and spirit of a bull walrus, an animal vital to his shamanic culture. The walrus meat provides strength for the people and their husky dogs while the bull's spirit gives the shaman great strength to battle other nefarious spirits.

  In contrast, Janet Kigusiuq's colored pencil and crayon drawing Landscape (1996) uses abstraction to depict her deep attachment to her Lakeside community. Looking like a microscopic cut-away of a cellular structure, her undulating rhythms of yellows, tans, blues and purples shows that nature is a living, breathing organism. Mattiusi Iyaituk's strange sculpture The Thigh of the Caribou with Bits of Fat pays tribute to the prized flesh of the animal. The carved blackish serpentine stone has an animalistic presence while a whittled antler juts out like a scorpion's tail from the fleshy and foreboding stone.

  Several works comment on events that culminated in the highly-charged 78 day standoff between the Mohawk Nation and the Canadian government in 1990. The most scathing is Ron Noganosh's assemblage Does Anyone Know What Time It Is? A propped-up AK-47 rifle balances soup cans on its barrel; bullets lie scattered at its base. The hand-painted cans contain mordant writings such as "Canada's Soup, Cream of Conquering Hero Treaty -- White version serves own interests." The overtly critical and political piece is a noteworthy inclusion in an exhibition sponsored by the Canadian government.

  

  Jobie Kangiqsujuaq Arnaituk, Walrus Composition.

  Women are also well represented in this exhibition. Jane Ash Poitras' Oka Spirit Power is a powerful collage painting of a school blackboard that incorporates her traditional Cree symbols with copies of old photographs of Indians. To Poitras, the blackboard represents something more sinister: her forced education to assimilate into Western culture at the expense of her own traditions and languages. America's indigenous peoples, like Taiwanese people, were forbidden by the state to speak their mother language in school. Marianne Nicolson, a Kwak'wala, is interested in portraying her traditional ideas by using a modern language. Her medium-sized installation, Excerpt from a House of God, speaks about all life: human, animal and the land. Three large black-and-white photographs tacked to the wall capture young people enjoying the woods and the river while juxtaposed with a suspended wooden frame from which hangs a traditional hand-embroidered "Native" blanket.

  There are some light-hearted moments in the show as well. If you are familiar with Manet's famous painting Olympia, then you will get a chuckle from Jim Logan's "Indianized" version.

  Transitions. At Tainan Municipal Cultural Center until Oct. 17; tel: (06)269-2864.
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