Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun - contemporary artist - Research Paper Example

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Even in the old days of the Renaissance and earlier, a lot of art has been motivated by political forces. A long time ago, this influence was mostly confined to who was paying for the art and how he wanted his subject portrayed. The wealthy or the church had full say in what could be commissioned and created. As time moved forward, though, art began taking a more critical look at the political forces that were taking shape around the artist. Artists began portraying battle scenes and other forms of conflict they saw happening around them as well as using art as a form of protest. Others remained within the pockets of the ruling class and produced art intended to encourage support for specific political factions. Now this kind of art is called propaganda. Many contemporary artists, though, are again turning to art as protest, incorporating political statements within the frames of their artworks and striving to encourage a more humanitarian, sustainable approach to modern life. Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is no exception to this group of artists, although he may be considered more political than most. Like many artists at work today, a great deal of Yuxweluptuns art can be associated with the popular culture movements, but it is also heavily informed by modern politics and ancient legends. To understand Yuxweluptans work, such as "The Impending Nisgaa Deal," it is helpful to know some background information about the artist and the event that inspired the work. Yuxweluptun is a Native American, his father is from the Cowichan Salish and his mother from the Okanagan, which had a strong impact on his art. He was born in 1957 and grew up mostly around the Vancouver area of Canada, giving him a very contemporary, modern viewpoint to his familys ancient roots as they were heavily involved in tribal issues. "He is deeply connected to his heritage as a man of mixed Okanagan and Coast Salish ancestry but cannot separate himself from the larger, non-Native society in which he now lives. He is an urban Indian, trained at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design, and his art partakes of conflicting traditions; Native and non-Native, popular culture and the spiritual world of his ancestral past, surrealism and landscape painting" (OBrien, 4). In keeping with his background, he is able to transcend the spiritual realities of his own culture to recognize the spiritual realities of other aboriginal cultures and doesnt hesitate to use their symbols in his work to emphasize his protests against the exploitation and abuse of the land he loves. His awareness of political issues was particularly strong as the Indians of this part of Canada have had to struggle to try to get some form of treaty with the Canadian settlers that moved into their area and took over their land (OBrien, 2005). A treaty was finally signed in 2000 between the federal and provincial governments and the Nisgaa nation which was supposedly a fair and equitable treatment of all parties, but there were some objections, only part of which being that it took 100 years for the Indians to gain legal recognition from the government as a separate people (Fact Sheet, 2010). Under the treaty, the Indians were given the right to have their own government with limits. For example, the tribes cant make laws about citizenship that deal with immigration or Canadian citizenship, they must meet or beat the current Canadian standards such as child welfare or spousal protection, and all federal and provincial laws still have priority over any tribal laws (Fact Sheet, 2010). Yuxweluptun felt certain that this treaty would eventually lead to greater hardship for the Indians, basing this opinion on the history of Indian treaties with the white culture. In response to the impending treaty signing, Yuxweluptun painted "The Impending Nisgaa Deal," a giant acrylic on canvas at the Vancouver Art Gallery which was painted in 1996, four years before the treaty was ratified. Characteristic of many of his artworks, this painting features very vivid colors and a highly symbolic approach. The scene depicts a surrealist landscape including a field, a few hills, a stream, two denuded trees and a peaceful blue sky with white fluffy clouds. Within this scene are three characters. There is a mostly pink character carrying a briefcase and walking out of the frame. His elongated head causes him to look very similar to the coyote trickster that is a common feature in much North American Indian art. The smirk on his face cannot be ignored as this symbol of the white mans bargain walks away from the other characters. The other characters are include a brown aboriginal figure bent over looking at the strange landscape as if only just now noticing its change from natural hues. The other figure, standing between the first two described, is a peacock blue and dressed in a loin cloth to designate him also as a tribal character. He (or she) holds his hands up to shoulder height on either side of his body. His fingers trail down ineffectively, like limp feathers and he is sticking his tongue out at the retreating pink character. The mid-ground hill is full of eyes and native shape forms, melted and draped over the natural contours. However, there is nothing natural growing here. The hills and the plain are totally smooth, and splotched with unnatural colors. The trees are nothing more than straight black poles, they could as easily be tarred electrical poles. The stream gurgles across the plain natural-seeming enough, until it is noticed that its source is a small spurt of water emerging from a large, pipe-like object and its flow seems to be fairly meager, tapering off to almost nothing toward the edge of the frame. A strange diagonal dividing line on the ground also conveys a suggestion that the pink figure has just crossed into a three-dimensional world, leaving the other figures in a two-dimensional space. Knowing the background of the artist and the political sphere in which he was painting makes the meaning of this painting very clear. It isnt just the title of the piece that connects it to the political discussion about the treaty, it is also the imagery Yuxwelputun chooses. Most interesting is the resemblance between the white mans representative, the pink figure, and the coyote trickster character from Native American myth. "In Native American folklore, the coyote is a trickster character who participated in the creation of the world and gave names to many of the other creatures and things of the earth. Sometimes the Coyote character was so mischievous and involved in his own trickery that he would trick himself. According to Trickster myths, this is why there are so many mistakes in the way things are in the world" (Thomason, 2005). At the time of the painting, it was difficult to tell which, if any, of the parties involved in the treaty would actually benefit. The Coyote, often involved in trickery but not always aware if he is tricking himself, is a perfect symbol of this uncertainty while still providing a warning to the Indians to be careful of making deals with such a figure. The blue figure may be a representation of a Navajo Yeii Spirit. According to Buck Gram (1998), this character serves as a mediator between man and his creator, but there is a special type of yeii "who can speak to man, teaching him how to live in harmony with all living things by following some simple rules of behavior to conserve and use well only the things he needs to survive." If this is what the character is supposed to be, then he stands on the side of the Indians, clearly with a great deal of work to do, and shows his disapproval of the deal with the white men. At the very least, he seems to place blame for the condition of the land on the retreating back of that white man. Yuxweluptun doesnt simply protest the treaty and its implications in the characters, it is even present in the landscape around them. The hills are covered with the ancestral faces of the people, demonstrating their original owners and suggesting that treaties should not be necessary for the people to remain on their land - it always has been their land. The hills with their masks make a clear difference from the plain, on which the colors are melting together under the heat of global warming. Together with the brilliant hues on the foreground hills, they show the unproductive nature of the land as it has become under the white mans rule. The land can no longer hold its shape or support the kind of life it once had as is seen in the bare trees that stand more as signposts for where the forests used to be. The water is no longer part of a free-flowing stream but spurts up out of a controlled pipe, likely at the discretion of the people the pink figure represents, meaning they have as much power to turn it off as they did to turn it on. There is a clear line of demarcation across the land, illustrating that area the Indians have control over, but with the other elements of the picture, its clear that this control is mostly imagined as the Indians have no control over what happens on the other side of the line, much of which is bleeding over into their soil. It was the vivid colors and cartoon-like characters that first drew me to this artist, but further investigation really made me realize how much meaning could be contained in a picture. I love the way Yuxweluptun blends symbols of various different Native American cultures to create an image that seems to speak directly to those in tune with those cultures. Its like a secret message that screams to the room for everyone to pay attention. This is very much in keeping with the whole post-colonial idea that weve discussed in class. This artist looks at the world through a different lens than the dominant culture and he uses symbols from oppressed cultures to criticize and comment on both cultures, giving each equal blame in the event. Word count: 1706 Works Cited "Fact Sheet: The Nisgaa Treaty." Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Canada. (September 15, 2010). Web. http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100016428 Gram, Buck A. Native American Designs. (1998). Web. http://www.buckagram.com/buck/symbols/ OBrien, Emilie. Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund, 2005. Print. Thomason, Bill. "Animal Life and Symbolisms." Sedona Experiences. Phoenix, Arizona. (2005). Web. http://www.sedonaexperiences.com/AnimalSymbolism.htm Read More