What constitutes contemporary First Nations Art?

Should the contemporary First Nations artist adhere to the past as closely as possible? Or should he or she challenge tradition, adapt to it or even deny it?

For Challenging Traditions, Ian M. Thom, senior curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery, has interviewed 40 artists who are using classical First Nations forms in innovative ways.

He has selected artists "working within or referencing traditional First Nation aesthetics."; Therefore some experimental artists of First Nations ancestry, such as Brian Jungen (he of the Nike shoe masks and the whale-made-of-lawn-chairs) are excluded. He describes the highly successful Jungen as "more influenced by conceptual and environmental concerns than by languages of his ancestry.";

Fair enough, but when we begin to go down this road it becomes a slippery slope to question whether it is necessary at all to group artists by their ancestry. That is where some historical perspective becomes useful.

From the years 1882-1951 aboriginal cultural practices-such as the potlatch-were criminalized.
It was not until 1958, in an exhibition to mark the centenary of the province of B.C., that First Nations art and objects were exhibited with artworks made by European migrants. It was not until the following year that aboriginal people were granted the right to vote federally (they were granted the right to vote provincially in 1947).

In 1971, when The Legacy exhibition opened at the British Columbia Provincial Museum in Victoria, the curators sought out younger artists who were producing new work and commissioned pieces from them. Other factors contributing to what Thom sees as an enormous growth in production and interest in First Nations art over the last forty years were the increasing use of the screen print and the development of marketing.

Paying homage to the past was important, but so was paying the rent.

Traditional apprentice and mentoring programs also played a part in the resurgence, as did the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art in Terrace.

Sonny Assu is a graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design who combines aspects of popular culture with First Nation design elements. As Thom notes, Assu's work was not universally encouraged within the First Nations community. One of his Uncles for example, told him that he should stop doing such work because "it's not right, it's not traditional."; It is that creative tension that makes Assu's work (to this viewer) interesting.

One of Assu's more stellar works uses the trademark font, swoosh and iconic red colour of a Coke ad, subverting the 'Enjoy Coca Cola'' message to read 'Enjoy Coast Salish Territory.'

"I think that it is important that there are artists out there that do the traditional stuff,"; Assu told Thom, "because it is important for the culture to reclaim itself, but I am all about pushing the bounds of the culture.";

For Beau Dick, an initiate of the Hamat'sa society of the 'Namgis people, identity as an aboriginal is integral to who he is. Dick is keenly aware of the push and pull of reclaiming and redefining-aesthetic versus functional, and art versus ritual-that many contemporary First Nations artists face.

"As a young child I saw two worlds colliding...,"; Dick says, "As I grew older I wanted to be in a traditional world, and I look around and I see my people suffering because they are putting all of their energy into useless things in our modern culture, whether it is TV or playing bingo.";

Michael Nicholl Yahgulanaas creates a revolutionary mix of Haida imagery and storytelling with Japanese manga (a form of graphic novel). Like many of the artists represented, Yahgulanaas did not at first see himself as an artist although he did always draw. Initially Yahgulanaas' primary focus was on the social and political struggles of the Haida people and on environmental issues

Yahgulanaas' first comic book was about tanker shipments of oil and gas along the B.C. coast. In 2001, his first widely published book was A Tale of Two Shamans, the beginning of what he has called the "Haida manga."; It was Yahgulanaas' Japanese students who compared his work to manga and assured him that it was a respectable art form in their homeland.

Concise, yet broad in scope, Challenging Traditions-Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast offers an important introduction to aboriginal artists attempting to push the boundaries, to tell new stories in a variety of mediums and styles, responding to radical changes in the world while respecting and balancing the old and the new.

Thom's language to describe the works is blessedly free of art speak, and it's inclusive and as plainspoken as most of his subjects. He has done a commendable job of representing their stories.

978-1-55365-414-8

Reviewed by Grant Shilling