Global Affairs: Canada (wk #4)
In response to an article "Toronto gallery cancels show after concerns artist 'bastardizes' Indigenous art"
By Shanifa Nasser, CBC News Posted: Apr 28, 2017
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-gallery-indigenous-art-cancels-amandapl-1.4091529
Amanda PL with one of her pieces (photo from CBC article)
An art exhibit in Toronto, by Vision Gallery, which planned to showcase the work of Non-Indigenous Amanda PL, has cancelled the exhibit due to backlash and outrage over her borrowing, and allegedly appropriating Indigenous culture and art, from an acclaimed Indigenous painter with no regard for the storytelling behind his work.
Amanda PL says she was inspired by the Woodlands style made famous by the Anishinabe artist Norval Morrisseau in the 1960’s. Morrisseau focussed on nature, animals, Indigenous spirituality and medicine. And said she was surprised by the negative reaction to her announced exhibit. PL also says she does not plan on stopping using the Woodlands style.
some key points in the article are;
PL says she did not intentionally lead people to think that she herself was Indigenous.
"I always tell people that I'm a Canadian artist," she said.
Vision Gallery co-owner Tony Magee said PL didn’t misrepresent herself to him or his partner, artist Francisco Castro Lostalo, in their communications before the planned exhibit. And it was only after the announcement of the exhibit that he learned PL was not Indigenous.
Magee said that in his own opinion there is no debate about appropriating from Indigenous people.
“Yes it's tricky,…everybody has an opinion,” he says. “Canada has to be aware of the history of how Indigenous people have been dealt with from the time of colonial settlements, and there is a specific perspective that we have to have with respect to that culture.”
Indigenous artist Jay Soule says.
"What she's doing is essentially cultural genocide, because she's taking his stories and retelling them, which bastardizes it down the road.” He said people will lose the connection to the original and real.
He also sees his protests grounded in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms full protection over Indigenous Peoples' intellectual property — ranging from oral stories to artwork.
"A lot of the Aboriginal people had issues with me not being native.… I feel like they think that I'm taking away from the culture, but really I'm not," PL said. She also said
"I think it's a shame to say that an artist can't create something because they're not from that race. That's like saying any other culture can't touch something like abstract art unless you're white, or you can't touch cubism art.”
In Conclusion: Personally I have compassion for Amanda PL and her situation, and her artwork is beautiful. But I agree with Jay Soule and Tony Magee. I have worked and lived with Indigenous peoples in Australia, and they have given me the most wonderful gift of sharing some of their culture, history and dances with me. While I know some of their dances, I wont just go around expressing myself through their dances for my benefit, or interpretting them as what they mean to me. It's their history, their culture, if I'm not with them I don't dance them.
One (potentially) possible way for Amanda to move forward without backlash could be that she finds one, or a few Indigenous Artists who are aware of the culture and Morrisseau's work, and they give input and guidance to her work, and in turn endorse her.
But it is also clear she doesn't understand the difference by her parallel to this situation and abstract or cubism art. Abstract and Cubism art don't tie into the root structure or belong to a long oppressed ethnic group. Her parallel is weak, and I would like to see her trying harder to see things from the Indigenous perspective.
