In this interdisciplinary study, narrative portraiture is used as a methodology to
depict three visual artists who draw on their lived experience, traditions and
values to engage viewers, through their artwork, about issues of landscape and
identity. I argue for an educative paradigm applied to art practice that seeks
individual and social/cultural transformation within and across communities
through pedagogical processes that recognize diverse audiences. Questions
guiding this study are: How do the artists' ideas and practices relate to living in
British Columbia and the representation of the land? What are their
motivations and strategies for expressing those ideas? How are the roles of
these artists and the roles of teachers linked?
The study considers the ways in which Jin-me Yoon, Lawrence Paul
Yuxweluptun and Marian Penner Bancroft foreground landscape in British
Columbia as a complex phenomenon and as a powerful icon in Canadian culture.
Through interviews and analysis of artwork, this study examines how these
artist/pedagogues challenge artistic conventions, myths and historical narratives
that have framed Western culture and influenced their experience. By
employing and disrupting conventions of representations of the land, they
construct new narratives concerned with issues of identity, the environment,
Native land claims, and urban history. This research portrait of artists who
attempt to inscribe a place for themselves and their communities within the life
of the province, is also a portrait of 'place', or the complex interrelationship of
people and the environment.
As role models and spokespersons who link knowledge and culture, the artists
share a desire'to foster understanding through postmodern art practices and
dialogic pedagogical processes. This study acknowledges their dual role as artist
and teacher, involving models of practice that aim to effect social change and
environmental care. It examines how their work integrating art and education,
reflects and attempts to shape the social, cultural and political landscape within
shifting conditions of society today. This study aims to provide a greater
understanding of artist/pedagogues and calls for an increased focus on a
pedagogical role for artists in museums, schools and other community-based
sites, particularly with respect to multicultural and environmental art
education.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9938 |
Date | 11 1900 |
Creators | Beer, Ruth Sulamith |
Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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