Over the last fifteen years a select group of professionally trained and politically astute Canadian artists of Native ancestry has produced a compelling body of work that owes much of its power to a wry and ironic sense of humour rooted firmly in oral tradition. More than a critical/political strategy, such humour reflects a widespread cultural and communal sensibility embodied in the mythical Native American Trickster. The present study explores the influence of this comic spirit on the practice of several artists through the presentation of a "Trickster discourse," that is, a body of overlapping and interrelated verbal and visual narratives by tricksters and about trickster practice. Most of the research for this project took place between January 1990 and November 1991 and involved extended conversations with artists, elders, actors, writers, linguists, curators and art historians in six Canadian provinces. Over 80 hours of interviews were amassed along with several hundred slides and photographs of artists' work. From this body of material 140 images were selected for analysis with well over 100 commentaries and reflections on practice excerpted from the interviews. These verbal and visual narratives have been gathered together under the broad headings of self-identity, representation, political control and global presence. In light of the highly eclectic and hybrid nature of these narratives, an eclectic and hybrid conceptual framework has been constructed to consider them. Accordingly, a multiplicity of theoretical concepts has been braided together and interwoven throughout the chapters to reflect the complexity, density and interconnectedness of the material. To convey the sense of raultilayered communication and simultaneous conversation, quotation and footnote have been used extensively as parallel and overlapping texts. In this they constitute a form of hypertext or hypermedia. More importantly, the text honours and participates in a non-linear process of representation shared by many of the artists.

Over the last fifteen years a select group of professionally trained and politically astute Canadian artists of Native ancestry has produced a compelling body of work that owes much of its power to a wry and ironic sense of humour rooted firmly in oral tradition. More than a critical/political strategy, such humour reflects a widespread cultural and communal sensibility embodied in the mythical Native American Trickster. The present study explores the influence of this comic spirit on the practice of several artists through the presentation of a "Trickster discourse," that is, a body of overlapping and interrelated verbal and visual narratives by tricksters and about trickster practice. Most of the research for this project took place between January 1990 and November 1991 and involved extended conversations with artists, elders, actors, writers, linguists, curators and art historians in six Canadian provinces. Over 80 hours of interviews were amassed along with several hundred slides and photographs of artists' work. From this body of material 140 images were selected for analysis with well over 100 commentaries and reflections on practice excerpted from the interviews. These verbal and visual narratives have been gathered together under the broad headings of self-identity, representation, political control and global presence. In light of the highly eclectic and hybrid nature of these narratives, an eclectic and hybrid conceptual framework has been constructed to consider them. Accordingly, a multiplicity of theoretical concepts has been braided together and interwoven throughout the chapters to reflect the complexity, density and interconnectedness of the material. To convey the sense of raultilayered communication and simultaneous conversation, quotation and footnote have been used extensively as parallel and overlapping texts. In this they constitute a form of hypertext or hypermedia. More importantly, the text honours and participates in a non-linear process of representation shared by many of the artists. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation traces the presence of installation-based practices among artists of Aboriginal ancestry via selected exhibitions across Canada. It begins with a methodological perspective on Canadian art history, federal law, and human science, as a means of establishing a contextual backdrop for the art under consideration. The rise of an Indian empowerment movement during the twentieth century is then shown to take on an international voice which had cultural ramifications at the 1967 Canadian International and Universal Exhibition. Nascent signs of a multi-mediatic aesthetic are distinguished in selected works in Canadian Indian Art '74, as well as through Native-run visual arts programs. First Nations art history is charted via new Canadian art narratives starting in the early 1970s, followed by the development of spatial productions and hybrid discourses in New Work By a New Generation in 1982, and Stardusters in 1986. The final chapter opens with a history of installation art since the Second World War, as related to the pronounced presence of multi-mediactic works in Beyond History in 1989. Post-colonial and postmodern theories are deployed to conclusively situate both the artistic and political concerns featured throughout this study, and lead into the analysis of selected installations at Indigena: Contemporary Native Perspectives and Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada. These 1992 shows in the national capital region ultimately confirm the maturation of a particular socio-political aesthetic that tested issues of Canadian identity, while signifying Aboriginal sites of difference.

This study presents Aboriginal artists' perspectives on the study of Native art in the school curriculum. The case study is a naturalistic inquiry that employs ethnographic techniques to interview nine Saskatchewan artists, five females and four males. Overall, the artists agree on having Native art content in school programs, especially for Native students. All the artists believe that Aboriginal peoples should be involved in the definition and presentation of their art in the school curriculum. The artists show that content, and materials, may or may not be traditional. The artists prefer an observing and modelling approach to teaching bead and leather work, and to teaching drawing and painting. The male artists, primarily, support a research approach for studying the vast, diverse, and complex art of indigenous peoples. As well as learning about the art, the artists stress learning from the art including history, ecology, and about art from a non-Western perspective. The words, stories, and views of all the artists emphasize that art is a dynamic part of Aboriginal peoples' lives and cultures; one which they are willing to explain and share. Native art is a rich resource for school curriculum. It is a resource that must be and can be shaped by Aboriginal peoples. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

No description available.

The history of collection at the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, illustrates concepts of race in the development of museums in Canada from before Confederation to today. Located at intersections of Art History, Museology, Postcolonial Studies and Native Studies, this thesis uses discourse theory to trouble definitions of nation and problematize them as inherently racial constructs wherein 'Canadianness' is institutionalized as a dominant white, Euro-Canadian discourse that mediates belonging. The recent reinstallations of the permanent Canadian historical art galleries at the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts are significant in their illustration of contemporary colonial collection practices. The effectiveness of each installation is discussed in relation to the demands and resistances raised by Indigenous and non-Native artists and cultural professionals over the last 40 years, against racist treatment of Indigenous arts.

No description available.