Though there is no doubt that he is a proud member of the Haida nation, artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas isn’t all that comfortable being slotted in as a Haida artist.
“I like to wonder about the distinction between Haida and other,” he said, talking about the stereotypes people and societies construct about each other. “It needs us to pay attention.”
And looking at the works included in Red: A Haida Manga, his exhibition at the Penticton Art Gallery, it is clear he has stepped outside what is commonly thought of as Haida artist’s work, while still celebrating and exploring the richness and complexity of his culture.
It’s a conflict he first came across in the ‘70s, when he left his home town of Masset on Haida Gwaii. Moving to Vancouver for visual arts education, he found that his cultural heritage influenced how others saw him as an artist.
The son of a Haida mother and a Scots father, Yahgulanaas soon left western art education behind and returned to Haida Gwaii, spending much of the next two decades in the political arena, working through the land claims process and jurisdictional disputes with federal and provincial governments.
But in the end, he returned to his art, looking for a way to explore and express the “humanness” of Haida culture and design as opposed to falling into stereotypes, like that of “the noble red savage.”
He found inspiration in manga, a Japanese graphic art form often seen in comic book form. Yahgulanaas admits that his work, telling traditional Haida stories using this style, would probably not be immediately recognizable as manga.
Rather, he said he follows the definition of manga, which translates as pictures without limitations, in his search to make his art accessible, looking for common ground while demonstrating the whimsy and humour that is an often overlooked part of Haida culture.
In Red, Yahgulanaas uses the style to illustrate a traditional oral story of a Haida leader so blinded by his desire for revenge that he takes his village and family to the brink of destruction.
“I wanted to create a monumental work,” he said, describing the mural, made up of 108 hand-painted frames, which are reproduced in book form as well.
But Yahgulanaas cautions viewers not to take the work, in the form of both a wall size mural and a book, as a simple comic book illustration.
“I want them to see complexity and not walk away with the feeling they understand,” he said, describing how the images work on many levels, from the individual frames and the spaces between them, to the bold graphic line that connects across the whole piece.
“I am not the ultimate author of this story,” he said, putting that responsibilty on the viewer, who he says — literally encouraging them to tear up a copy of his book — should disassemble and reassemble the frames, view them from different distances and in different ways.
“I want them to explore the relationship between themselves and the other,” he said.
Richard Armstrong of the E’nowkin Centre was on hand to offer Yahgulanaas a traditional welcome, happy to see the works on the wall, exploring traditional stories and legends in this way.
“Our youth are looking at this kind of work,” he said, adding that First Nations culture doesn’t have to be limited to exploring traditional forms.
Yahgulanaas also has a strong connection to the Penticton area — one of his first major works, A Tale of Two Shamans, was published by Theytus Books in 2001.
The original drawings for that work — the first curated exhibit for the complete work — are part of the Red: a Haida Manga exhibit, which continues at the gallery until March 13.
