Roger Fernandes’s Sleeping Spirits Awaken (2001), acrylic on canvas, 30 by 40 inches
It took Seattle Art Museum eight years to put together its current exhibition of Salish art—the art of the native people of this region—and SAM’s show, amazingly, is the first major museum exhibition ever devoted to the work and culture of the Salish.
Why has Salish art been so lost for so long? What is it really about, and how does the SAM show succeed and fail in presenting it?
On my podcast this week, I talk to Salish artist Roger Fernandes—who grew up in an apartment on Capitol Hill but in a close Klallam family (the Klallam are from the Port Angeles area)—about his search for his artistic heritage, and why he deliberately makes art that his ancestors would recognize.
(My review of the SAM show is here.)
What’s even weirder is that almost everyone in this area has grown up thinking Haida art is what the people from here did — totem poles and stuff.
it’s probably been lost for so long because you’ve never written about it. but now you have and the world is saved!
@1: That’s actually the point, I think. Coast Salish artists have been encouraged by white “collectors”– anthropologists and art enthusiasts– to emulate haida art, or to play to racist stereotypes about Indian peoples all being the same.
However:
-The Burke museum showcased Coast Salish art last year: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/in…
-The Tacoma art museum featured Coast Salish sculpture three years ago: http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/page.aspx…
And I suspect that “major museums”– such as the UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver and the Royal Canadian Museum in Victoria, BC have also featured a great deal of Coast Salish “artifacts.”
SAM should be commended for putting on this exhibit, and for blending arts and culture, but might want to tone down its claim that this is the FIRST time a “major museum” has paid attention to Coast Salish art.
It’s a hard sell I guess. *We’re planning an exhibit of baskets, capes, and wood tools mostly* doesn’t sound very sexy. It’s also incongruous with what used to be the standard paradigm of aesthetics: that art is supposed to be useless and universal. That paradigm still holds a lot of sway even after decades of engaged art.
It can’t be the Kant has really been that persuasive. Kant must express some sort of deep trend in European intuitions about the place of art in the scheme of things.
By the way, Roger Fernandes will be giving a “My Favorite Things” tour this Sunday at 12:30 at the Seattle Art Museum, in conjunction with the closing weekend of S’abadeb. You can find more information on the SAM online calendar: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/calendar…. ~ SAM
Just listened to your podcast. It’s pretty good. I accidentally went “the wrong way” through the exhibition and I read it differently than the primitive to modern way that you saw it.
I would say, in your interviews, either speak or don’t speak, but please don’t just moan or go mmm or hmmm or mmmhmmm….please? In the interview, you can nod your head for acknowledgment without that (it’s distracting). Thanks.
Great podcast though. Sorry to be so critical.
This show was sorely needed and I really enjoyed seeing it! But it made me curious about a couple of things:
1) If it is such a big deal, why isn’t it up for a longer period of time?
and
2) Where’s the contemporary native art in the rest of the museum? It seems like the only “new” native art that is allowed is that which plays into native designs from the past. As wonderful as much of that work is, I refuse to believe it is the only thing going on with native art scene today. There is talk about how these are living cultures but homage is only paid to artists that are producing work that can be viewed by outsiders as culturally authentic. This one-sided approach continues to lock native people and cultures into history instead of the present.
#3: Actually, SAM’s claim is pretty much true. The Burke show was not Salish only. The TAM show was very small and largely focused on the in-person carving of a single sculpture by Shaun Peterson (the exhibition made no claims to comprehensiveness). And as for the UBC and other collections (including SAM’s installation of its own permanent collection): Have you looked?? The number of Salish objects in these places is incredibly small. I think when you check into it, you’ll see.
@5: Sorry I left that out!
@6: Actually I really appreciate the feedback. Thanks.
@7: I wondered the same things.
Went to the “Native Film Showcase” at SAM which was part of the show’s closing celebrations this past weekend and I have to say that it did partially address my second question in the comment I posted earlier. The show itself was packed with visitors. Too bad hardly anyone went to see the films though.