Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun wrote that he’s “interested in recording history: worldwide concerns such as the hole in the ozone layer; environmentalism, humanities, humour, and exestentialism.” More so, through traditional native iconography, he collaborates with numerous aboriginal issues to display very vivid, and though-provoking pieces of art. Red Man Watching White Man Trying to Fix Hole in Sky caught my attention as an almost sarcastic, satyrical investigation into the relationship with the world around us. With the involvement of aboriginal storytelling in the new curriculum, I was drawn to Lawrence’s collection due to his unmatched ability of expressing stories through his work.
Speaking from the stance of an English teacher, I find the concept of expressing story through art to be one that hasn’t been touched on in many english classes that i’ve had the opportunity to sit in on. We speak about incorporating aboriginal material through newspaper articles, poetry, or novels, yet we never really (or I’ve never seen) a collection of artwork come through an English classroom, which would do a tremendous job of telling a story, and expressing a relationship between the canvas and the world around us. I would be really interested to se how students make a relationship with pieces of work such as this, and what story they would be able to tell from it. Much like a novel, there can be no univocal understanding of art – I’d really love to see this idea flow into the English classroom.
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