Monthly Archives: January 2019

Peter Morin’s ‘This Song is a Museum’ (1977) is exhibited in a glass case with top light in Multiversity Gallery in the Museum of Anthropology. This artwork consists of five drums and a drumstick, which are placed in picturesque disorder. The drumstick is heavily decorated by shiny beads on its shaft and covered with a white fur on the top.  It is noticeable that the fur at the top is dipped in black paint. The drums are made of elk-skin with different shapes include round and octagonal. Various patterns are painted on them. Apparently, Morin turns the drumstick into a brush and the drums into the canvas. The splash patterns of the black paint show the strength of playing the drums. Meanwhile, it tells the artist’s emotion. I saw peaceful, excitement, brightness and mild in his work through various shapes of the paint.  He reflects the pattern of life of Tahltan, which is a First Nations people group inhabiting British Columbia.

There’s a dagger of Tahltan which was strictly used for war is exhibited on the right side of the glass case. Meanwhile, clothing is also exhibited. These elements of defense, costumes and so forth constitute a more comprehensive culture of Tahltan. Artifacts which are made of black or white marble with exquisite craftsmanship are found on the left side of Morin’s work. They are labeled as representations of Inuit culture. While they share similarities with Morin’s ‘This Song is a Museum’ which is an artwork of Tahltan culture. Most of these artifacts are figures or sculptures of entertainment, such as sculptures of musical bands and chessboards. Both Inuit and Tahltan culture shows the awareness of aesthetic as well as entertainment of indigenous people. The museum curators claim that Morin’s artwork is a symbol of rich culture and a strong economic foundation. To provide evidence for it, the curators display other Tahltan exhibitions around ‘This Song is a Museum’ and shows their indigenous identity.

As a viewer, I was wondering how to formalize intangible things. A song is intangible, what makes a song? Morin gives me the idea that musical instruments are typical representations of a song. “The drums are a record of indigenous knowledge” explains by Morin. He mixes the indigenous elements into his artwork which is an outstanding example of indigenous identity. Most viewers don’t have the knowledge about the aboriginal people—Tahltan. Not everybody is familiar with the history or anthropology. However, we are familiar with the mundane musical instruments displayed in Morin’s artwork. He turns something abstract into something we familiar with.

The piece ‘One Mind, One Heart’ currently displayed in the ‘Anthropology Museum’ at UBC is one such that is bringing up one of the many underlying problems between the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada and the Canadian government for all to see.

Within a seemingly ordinary exhibit in the museum where heaps of little baskets made of fibers are featured next to one another, little artifacts that these people had used are encased behind giant glass walls. And merely a few feet from these pieces, a rather odd-looking mask encased behind a glass frame that covers it on all four sides sits staring.

The whereabouts of the piece did not make a great impression on displaying the importance of this mask since it was sort of in the middle of small and insignificant every-day usage artifacts, but then I realized that perhaps this was the point. Despite my thoughts on the location impairing the artifact’s importance, the fact that it was out of place did in fact make me think it stood out and drew my attention to it even more. This appears to be a great tactic to draw more attention to the mask without shoving its importance down people’s throats.

At first glance, the piece appears to be just another one of the countless aboriginal-made masks portrayed in the museum, it has the traditional blue/red paint covering around its eyes, deep black eyes, a broad nose and long brown hair that falls from either side of the mask. At closer inspection however, it becomes clear that some kind of boat is placed between the lips of the mask, the angry facial expression and the angle of its facial expression gives off the feeling that it is perhaps biting down on the boat, as though trying to snap it in two. This was a direct reference by the Heiltsuk Nation to the relevant Canadian government officials that they did not approve of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and to the oil tanker traffic that would pass through their territory and their waters. This piece is perhaps the perfect example that showcases the ancient teachings of the Heiltsuk peoples, those of protecting their land and waters against such perils. The creator of the mask Nusi delivers “I created ’Yágis for One Mind, One Heart, an installation at the Museum of Anthropology to show my support in opposing the Enbridge Pipeline Project. He hunts down oil tankers and protects our territories and coast.”.

Citations:

Bonar, Thane. “One Mind, One Heart Exhibit at MOA.” Aboriginal Portal, aboriginal.ubc.ca/2013/01/02/one-mind-one-heart-exhibit-at-moa/.