Bone Box is an abstract installation, made in 2007, that now rests in the Great Hall of the Museum of Anthropology amongst other, much less colourful, pieces. It was crafted by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas – visual contemporary artist, author and speaker – using plywood sheets as panels that rotate from a vertical and dominant position to a horizontal position, revealing the words: “A STACK OF PLYWOOD TRAYS BUILT TO CONTAIN FRAGMENTS OF EVERYONE’S CULTURE”. The frontal view of the 12 panels together make up an abstract, collective image, yet each individual panel is an independent story of its own. The binding of these two worlds – the smaller, more defined one, and the larger, wholistic one – embodies an association between indigenous and contemporary cultures that Yahgulanaas makes through his piece. The fragmented art work represents the many cultural fragments that exist in today’s world, however the paintings overlap and come together to create a singular image. This shows how cultural differences are inevitable, but should not restrict our coexistence.
Bone Box is the only colourful piece in a room that is dominated by brown and red tones. For this reason, it stands out in stark contrast to the rest. The other exhibits that surround this piece include canoes, 19th century Haida poles, woven work, and date back to as early as 1984 (Canoe, Bill Reid), further accentuating this piece as the most modern and contemporary work. The piece’s modernity and colourful nature is a celebration of the marriage of these two worlds.
One wouldn’t call this a perfect example of figurative repatriation, as it is defined by Kramer, however the artists’ desire to reclaim, or ‘repatriate’, his own Haida culture through similarly characterized art – round, thick, and textured strokes – is undoubtedly made clear through this piece. It is his way of “colonizing the colonizers” through art – through outlining similarities between first nation and all other peoples, but still maintaining the style and practice of his own Haida culture.
Additionally, the fact that each plywood sheet was once used by the Archaeology Department at UBC to store objects shows how Yahgulanaas is able to repurpose objects that are used currently to depict events and realizations that are reoccurring. He obtains this unique power; the power to transcends time and space – a power that is unique to art.
The first thing I noticed as I saw this piece was its imperfect symmetry. The whole installation seems to be symmetrical in shape and size, but the details of each side are not the same. My take on the significance of this is that it again portrays how cultural differences (the fine details) shouldn’t limit to one’s place in society (symmetry); equal treatment does not depend on equal appearance.
References:
“Museum of Anthropology at UBC.” Collection Online | Museum of Anthropology at UBC, collection-online.moa.ubc.ca/home.