Cultural Reflections of the Communities of North America - Essay Example

Native American Sculptural Art Work Native American sculptural art work was discounted as an art form as pieces were examined through a rigidly defined set of rules about how to determine the nature of art. As the progression of the modern era brought about a widening of the understanding of artistry, the emergence of an understanding of the long history of sculpture within the Native American communities began grow. The totem poles or more memory poles that were created by Native American artisans reveal sophistication in narrative and color as the shallowly carved pieces relate cultural significance in their meaning. Modern artists such as Bill Reid have used the structures of Native American sculpture principles in order to connect to the heritage of the people in these communities. Effigy pieces such as pipes and ladles show that the ceremonial use of imagery was a part of their daily life. Masks provide context for the use of sculpture as a connection to the ritual of worship. The sculptural artwork of Native Americans provides insight into the prejudices held by Western influences that deprived the idea of the work as art, but also reveals a complexity of skill and meaning that puts their existence into context with the history of the Native people of North America. In the 19th century there was a general belief that Native Americans had not developed a sculptural history within the development of their art. Wade states, however that the sculptural art from Native American history has proven to be both sophisticated even in its primitive forms, and the result of specialization from within the populations in which artisans practiced their skills and honed the art form. The pieces that survive from prehistoric American native cultures, especially from the Pacific Northwest exhibit an “excellence (that) was probably the result of professional specialization, beyond the simple division of labor by sex, that occurs in highly ranked or stratified societies” (Wade 157). The reason that the 19th century beliefs about sculptural art from the Native American cultures has been rectified by late 20th and 21st century thought is because the idea of art has expanded from the rigidity of earlier Western standards. The change has affected the way in which Native American art is received because “the major change in the perception of Native American arts has not been in the application of native standards of excellence, but in the recognition of a greater range of arts as art” (Wade 157). In understanding how this diminishment took place, one must understand how the shared competence by the maker and the user affects the understanding of the work. Wade states that “In the case of Native American prehistoric, and many of the historic arts, the modern viewer does not share the maker’s competence, and while the rules governing the creation of an object may be partially reconstructed by an outsider or modern viewer, they cannot be fully and experientially grasped (Wade 157). Looking at a piece as shown in Susie Hodges pictorial representations of prehistoric art, one must shed Western ideals in order to embrace the nature of the work. On first glance, the piece which was found in the Ohio River Valley is merely a cutout shape of a bird. Upon closer examination, however, the work is detailed and complex, made of copper with a pearl used to represent the eye. Hodges relates that there were several animal sculptural pieces found in the region and were likely from the same artist who appeared to have worked at his craft. The artistry of totem poles has only recently been understood for their contribution to the primitive arts of the Native American sculptural history. According to Bleicher, “The Native American tribes of the Northwest Pacific coast were experts in their use of color to enhance the dimensionality of their sculptures” (135). The poles, more accurately called memorial poles, are most often carved from cedar and embellished with animals and figural representations that are stacked which are associated with stories and memories of the culture they represent. While the carving is done with skill and practiced professionalism from within the community, the colors that are applied provide for a deeper sense of the imagery and have specific meanings for the tribe they represent. The sculpting of the cedar was done in shallow relief, the details often worn down through centuries of exposure. Where the story was related through symbolically staking the figures, the colors gave emotional context to the work as they represented the feelings of the community about the characters and the story (Bleicher 135). A contemporary example of the Northwest Pacific aesthetics can be seen in the artwork of Bill Reid. According to Simpson, “His work captures the quintessential and unmistakable qualities of the forms and conventions of Northwest Coast art, yet brings to it a unique and personal view that draws upon and transforms traditional stories in a modern form” (252). Much of his work relates his vision to the vertical form of the memory pole, his release of the images from the confines of their unshaped materials giving them space and context for their existence. Using the forms of art that include jewelry, sculpture, painting, and screen-printing, Reid has looked into the history of the past in order to translate his heritage into modern interpretations (Simpson 252). In connecting the historical works with modern interpretations, artists like Reid create context for the modern viewer on the traditions of the sculptural art of the Native American heritage. The utilitarian nature of some of the sculptural work has given some context to some of the traditions found in Native American cultures. Some of the more detailed sculptural works has been found on the ladle that was carried by members of the communities. These food purposed instruments, called ladles by European travelers because of the larger bowl type receptacle than is found in most spoons, were used in the production and maintenance of food preparation. Those pieces that were used in ceremonial cooking had carved effigies, pieces that have been found showing that they were made as earlier as the Late Archaic Period which lasted between 4000 and 1000 BCE (Powers 156). These pieces have been found made of shell, earthenware, rock and copper, but few have been found made of wood, which would seem the most natural as a material to be carved. The reason is not that they were not made of wood, but more accurately that the soil from which most were excavated would have eroded and destroyed those carved from wood. The irony of the influences of European adventurers on the Native American cultures was the introduction of brass kettles as a common item for trade as the copper salts that eroded from the brass would then preserve the wooden articles that were found near. Items from the 16th and 17th centuries that were carved from wood have been excavated due to these preserving brass kettles (Powers 157). Effigy pipes were traditions of the Hopewell artists who created small animal figures on their smaller pipes, while the artists of the Mississippi territories created much larger pipes with figures of humans and animals, along with larger compositional pieces. According to Susan Power, the pipes were “a testament to the high level of sculpting skill that existed in the region” (p. 105). Pipes that were made of stone can be found from as late as the 19th century from the Cherokee communities. Carvers of ceremonial pipes that were used in ritual and ceremony were created from stones such as “green or grey steatite, grey-black shale, or occasionally fragments of older soapstone pots” (Power 106). Grease was used to enhance the appearance of the stone which had been carved using metal tools, some as simple as the pocketknife. The figures on the pipes could be human, frog, bear, panther or squirrel, as well as images of weapons such as the tomahawk. A few of the works show scenes of explicit sexual acts between two people. Masks were also a form of sculptural art that have survived antiquity and been used well into the 20th century. The use of masks had religious significance concerning life “transforming it from one determined by the pursuit of satiating base need to one made real by the aligning with the sacred” (Power 108). The masks made by the Cherokee show a continual rate of interruption by European influences which increased the level of symbolism that can be seen within the masks. Power emphasizes that the European influences created a series of changes within the sculptural history of the Native Americans, her focus on the Cherokee communities as their use of tools and materials shifted through the geographical relocations and material introductions made by Western societies as they intruded into the Cherokee cultural space. Sculptural works of art that exist from the Native American communities of history reveal cultural information that provides for an understanding of ritual, ceremony, and daily life. Although the works were not considered art until the 20th century, modern artists such as Bill Reid have used these examples as a way to connect to their heritage. Carved pieces are the bulk of the work, the memory poles, pipes, masks, and ladle all revealing craftsmanship that is sophisticated and well practiced. As the work has emerged through excavation and archeological discovery, the pieces reveal how the interference of the European traveler has influenced changes in the way in which pieces were constructed. However, the most important discoveries are those that reveal cultural reflections of the communities of North America where the pieces create a narrative on daily life and provide for context and meaning to the symbols that are prevalent on the works. In discovering the artistry of the sculpture of North America, an importance and meaning is revealed as the people worked toward connecting to the mysteries of the world. References Bleicher, Steven. Contemporary Color: Theory & Use. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Hodge, Susie. Prehistoric Art. Des Plaines, Ill: Heinemann Interactive Library, 2006. Print. Power, Susan S. Art of the Cherokee: Prehistory to the Present. Athens, Ga. [u.a.: Univ. of Georgia Press, 2007. Print. Powers, Steven S. North American Burl Treen: Colonial & Native American. Brooklyn, N. Y: S. Scott Powers Antiques, 2005. Print. Simpson, Moira G. Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print. Wade, Edwin L, and Carol Haralson. The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution. New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, 1986. Print. Read More