Test Day
Option to do Vamps instead of writing essay
Tuesday April 22, 2014
Art of the Inuit
Kenojuak
·
Birds and men were able to walk upright
·
There is only one thing to live, is to see the
light that fills this world.
·
They remember how it was for the hunt to fail,
so now they make pictures about the hunt, it was hard when the hunt failed many
people suffered.
·
In past they carved in stone and drew on ivory,
but this was a new idea.
·
A thin piece of paper is laid on the paint
covered stone tablet, they made 50 prints.
The Living Stone
- · Materials came from seal, or sea spirit.
- · All good things that help them come from the sea.
- · Large round face of a woman, and a tail of a fish (Name?)
- · Carved stone to represent the seal woman, they hope that this will give them lots of seals in the summer (keeps the seals in a large pool at the bottom of the sea)
- · Kills seal and moves into summer home.
- · Has to wait until the water recedes to get the stones again
- · Men carve the stone, woman preps clothing
- · Sees the true form of the rock and cuts away so people could see. (Sometimes there are more than one image that shares the rock.
- · The best summer ever came, and there were many seals.
The North
Stories of the Inuit- powerful earth dwelling or sea
dwelling spirits have miniature animals that live on their bodies. These
animals travel to the human world and allow themselves to be captures in the
hunt- to sustain human life.
Human beings have for thousands of years sought the cooperation
of the animal spirits and honored them by wearing small amulets carved their
images.
Such ritual and artistic traditions reflect beliefs, common throughout
the Arctic and sub0Arctic regions of the North, in relationships of reciprocity
and respect that bind animal and human populations to each other and both to
the land that nourishes them.
Dene- a hunter would not say that he has had no luck with
bear or beaver by rather- “Beaver or beaver did not want me
Materials- bark, wood, roots, salmon skin, walrus intestine,
muskox and moose hair, bird pelts, bone, antler, and ivory, as well as the more
widely used hides of deer, caribou and hare (STONE TOO)
The importance of hunting reveal the focus of shamanistic
practices to Northern ritual-artistic expression
Specialist shaman- engaged their powerful spirit helpers to
communicate with being that control the animals
(Example Sedna- the undersea mistress of the Arctic sea mammals… And ; Master of caribou- of the eastern
sub-arctic who controls game animals on land
Shamans wore carved amulets and distinctive clothing for
public performances that testifies to their powers and visionary experience.
Wednesday April 23, 2014
Possible Test Question
- Assistance to glare
-Prevents snow blindness
-focuses the wearer
Yup-ik
Artist depicted the mystical journys of shaman’s in
carved and painted masks.
A Yupik mask carved in about 1875 depicts a walrus and
another creature
Yup’ik
-early 20th century
Yupik masks made the invisible visible
They are the physical representations of encounters with
the spirit world
Spiritual leaders design the masks to represent beings
they have seen while in a trance
Every element and motif of a mask has a special purpose,
the meaning of which is known only to the creator of the mask.
Bering Sea
Early 20th Century
Seal gut, sinew, seal fur
Waterproof parkas such as this were made by cleaning deal
intestine and sewing it into a waterproof garment.
They were worn by men when travelling by qajait (kayak)
Kenojuak Askevak, the co-ops best known artist was the
subject of a 1961 film produced by the National Film Board that focused on her
traditional life and art. Her work has been reproduced on Canadian Stamps
Today visual arts play an important told in festivals and
performances while continuing to record traditional beliefs and historical
memories.
Commercial fine arts have become a source of economic
subsistence.
DID NOT GET PICTURE…
Each member of animal species linked together by a common
Yua/Inua or inner spirit- if displeased with the hunter- will not allow
themselves to be hunted
Representations of Yua/Inua (Yu’Pik/Inupiaq) or spirit are
usually human form and a major feature is to have ritual observances to thank
and honor animals killed that year
Bladder festival- Bladders hung from ceiling of ceremony
house Qas-gig (koosik)- Community ceremonial house (see model of Qas-gig) –
served as men’s house, as well as community house or ritual center. Held to honor
spirit of all game animals used for the year- asking them to return with their
bodies to be killed again Bladders were inflated and hung in the rafters.
This is the part of the body were the Yua/Inua resides- 4
day annual event with song, dance, feast, mask performance
Shaman supervised mask performance some masks represent
Yua/Inua and some represent Shaman’s helpers (Sea Mammals bladders returned to
sea- so to ensure more next time)
Describe the Bladder Festival (Page 161)
Model of bladder
festival, ivory and wood
Although made for sale to outsiders, this model vividly
recreates the annual thanksgiving festival held in December. In the men’s
social house, the hunters sing and drum in order to please the spirits of the sea
mammals killed during the previous year. Hanging from the roof are an ivory carving
of a bird, and models of two wooden bladders. The master of ceremonies wears a
crown with black dots.
Bentwood hunting hat
(163)
-Hunters wore wooden visors to protect their eyes from glare
and to spiritally assist with the hunt.
Hunters Goggles
TEST QUESTION: WHAT ARE SNOW GOGGLES
Ornamentation of hunting equipment was an important part of
hunting strategy where the aesthetic form of tools was essential to its
function. Ornamentation- arctic men take it further- men wear labrets- decorative
plugs in lower chin or lip to look like walrus. Walrus is respected for
strength and aggressiveness- boys would receive a labret.
Tattoos. Nose pins. Ear ornaments. Indigenous peoples
throughout the Aleutian archipelago. According to Aleut beliefs, their tattoos
and piecing also cloaked or camouflaged the physical body from supernatural
forces that inhabited their maritime environment.
Arts of shamanism
Process of becoming a shaman- involved apprenticeship
Involved- drumming and language (only shamans speak) and
therefore needed the skills to facilitate
Ordeal after apprenticeship- Tuun-raq- No an animal Yua/Inua
byt very powerful, residers on the moon and controls supply of game. Shaman had
an out of body trance journey to Tuun-raw and pleads with them for release of
game. Shaman has to be recognized by Tuun-raq and them will be transformed and
would give physical immortality and give his powers to shaman. Organs will be
transformed into quartz crystal-shaman will become transparent or thing person
and be able to transfer between worlds. (A split open cavity shows
transformation)
transformation pg 157)
The final winter ceremony- a way of requesting or praying
for abundance, involved singing songs of supplication to the animals yua (their
persons) accompanied by masked dances performed under the shaman’s direction.
Man created ritually powerful masks through which the animals yua and shamans
spirit helped revealed themselves as simultaneously dangerous and helpful. Used
in enactments of past spiritual encounters, the masks had the power to evoke
such encounters in the future.
1892 –loon- (p157) Face of Yua is underneath- human feet and
hands (holes in them). Holes represent a passageway- split body/skeletal
Thursday April 24, 2014
Northwest coast Pg. 173-207
There are three general regions which distinguish (p.176)
Northwest coast art, North, Central and Southern Regions
Northern Regions- including the Tlingit of Southern Alaska, the Haida of the Queen Charlotte islands and southern Alaska, The
Tsimshian- speaking peoples (who include the Nisga’a of the lower Nass River,
the Gitskan of the Skeena and the
coastal Tsimshian) including the Haisla
Visual art was historically used for the display of family
crests and in more specialized shamanistic practices.
Winter was the time for ritual renewal and celebration.
The Northern and central regions featured crest displays on
architectural carving and clothing, but also elaborate displays and
performances where origin stories of family titles and birthrights were re
enacted
Central Region- includes Salish speaking
Southern Region- Coast and straights Salish speaking peoples
on whose ancient homelands are located in modern cities of Vancouver, Seattle
and Victoria.
The maintenance of social hierarchy through art and ceremonialism
is less stressed although potlatching and power or supernatural displays are
present. This is largely due to the lengthy period of contact which upset
traditions and the arts- meaning there is less sculpture and painting. The vision
quest and personal guardian spirits as being more important to Northwest Coast-
not unlike their trading partners who are the plateau and plains cultural groups
Visual art and performances are integral to the narration of
family histories. Inherited images, known as crest, symbolize these histories.
When they are properly presented and witnessed at ritual celebrations known as
potlatches, the crests and their stories explain, validate, and reify the
traditional social order, and affirm the acquisition of power by members of
high ranking families and the ownership of land.
Subsistence based on fishing, hunt, and gathering. Salmon,
eulachon/candlefish and sea mammals were staples
Red and Yellow cedar is versatile and provided wood for
carving utensils, art objects, building plank houses (multi-family dwellings)
Shredded cedar bark, woven into capes, blankets and skirts, was also the major
material used in clothing everywhere except the south where other game animals
were available.
The North West Coast
Art Style
Many features of what is recognized as the north coast art
style are shared by the Haida and their mainland neighbors, the Tsimshian and
Tlingit. This is particularly true of flat designs, which use formlines and
ovoids. Primary formlines occur within the primary spaces and are usually red.
In rare instances, two colors are reversed for dramatic effect. There is a
formal grammar of formlines in which rules control the thickness of the line
and the changes of direction.
U Forms- look like a wide filled in letter ‘u’
S- forms looks like a thick letter ‘s’
T Shapes can be seen splitting the u-forms
A rounded bulging oval to rectangular shape called an ovoid is a feature unique to
Northwest coast art. Ovoids are used to portray a creature’s eyes and joints
and sometimes teeth or orifices like nostrils or ears. Small faces are often
placed within such ovoids; these refer to the loss of the soul as a prelude to
death, for the Haida believe that the soul leaks out of the joins or orifices
of the body.
TEST:
Primary Parts of North West Coast Artwork--- OVOID, PRIMARY FORMLINE, SECONDARY
FORM LINE, U FORMS, S FORMS, T FORMS
Haida Art
The Haida fashioned for
themselves a world of regalia and adornments, tools and structures, with
spiritual dimensions appropriate to each. The decorations on the objects they
created were statements of social identity, or reminders of rights and
prerogatives bestowed on their ancestors by supernatural beings, or of lessons
taught to them through mythic encounters with the animals, birds, fish or other
beings who likenesses were embodied in the crests passed down through
generations.
The abstract concept of art
for art’s sake had little meaning for the Haida, but they had exceptionally
high standards of craftsmanship and the desire to constantly improve their
skills.
Bent wood box
Boxes were used to store
regalia, food stuffs, clothing, and ritual objects such as rattles and
whistles. Some boxes were simply made of bent sheets of cedar bark sewn at the
corners and base to provide disposable containers for trade items while others
were more substantial and durable.
Bentwood boxes for food ranges
in capacity from a couple of liters up to 225 liters (50 gallons)
Hosting the feast
Dishes, bowls, trays, ladles
and spoons in a variety of shapes and sizes were part of the expected settings
for a feast, and those that were particularly well designed drew much comment
from guests. Dishes and bowls were carved out of blocks of wood, moldered out
of horn, or constructed by bending boards into a box shape
Food dishes and bowls
An individual who possessed personal
or family foods fish was expected to bring it along to a feast and to use it
afterwards to take food home to relatives.
The person food dish called
a kihle is about 30 cm in length although smaller ones were made for children a
person grease dish was often carved from a solid block of wood usually alder, which
grows on Haida Gwaii or maple, which was traded in finish form from the
Tsimshian.
Ladles and horn spoons
Ladles and spoons were used
to transfer food from serving containers to fishes and to eat with.
Ladles were elegantly plain
or might have handles embellished with an ancestral figure or a crest design
Individual horn spoons were
the most decorated items at a feast. The bowl of the spoon was made from cream-colored
mountain sheep horn, steamed and bent in a mold.
The curved handles were made
from black mountain goat horn that provided a field for artistic display second
only to that of totem poles. In fact, many spoons handles were faithful
replicas of the poles in front of their owner’s house.
The Haida
employed masks in potlatch performances to illustrate the spirit beings
encountered by their ancestors. A complex transformation mask. Closed, the mask
depicts a whale with a seagull on its head. When the whales face is open the dorsal
fin and gull’s head both fold back to reveal the humanlike inner face, Copper
eyebrows, lips and cheek decorations complete this mask.
Mythology and Crests-
The mythology of the Haida
like that of other tribes on the central and northern coast, is based on the
epic cycle of stories about the Raven and his various exploits. The raven is truly
a trickster who liberates humankind from a clamshell, then in one story set the
universe in order, only to threaten it with chaos in the next. The Raven is the
most greedy, mischievous and lecherous creature imaginable by almost without
meaning to teaches humans the arts of living a good life.
Spirit of Haisa Gwaii- Bill
Reid
WATCH VIDEO:
Bill Reid- The Jade Canoe
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/sculpture/the-life-and-legend-of-bill-reid/the-jade-canoe.html
Wednesday April 30, 2014
Test Review
What is bladder festival?
West Coast Art
·
S-U-T Formlines.. Primary Secondary..ovoids….-
·
Architecture (Pit House|6 beam big house, Video)
·
Bill Reid (Contemporary Artist)
North (Arctic) Yu’Pik Mask
·
Identify objects (Images of different things,
identify)
Bentwood Box
Living Stone- Soap Stone/Seal wanted to be caught
194-195 Crest Art (Totem pole)
Potlatch (MAIN
QUESTION) (p.198)
Walking with our sisters
Christy Bellcourt (Describe her Art)
Spirit of Haidi Gwaii
The Jade Canoe
GOOD LUCK!!
-Vanessa Z
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