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"Panel Notes: "Of/By/For: A Dialogue on Representation""

6 Comments -

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Blogger sally said...

thanks so much for the report, Leah.

"when an artist is working in a culture or subculture different from their own, they actually need to expand the limits of their practice, not limit them"

I think this is a really good insight.

"She also noted how much the adults in Polataiko's film avoided meeting the gaze of the camera..."

This kind of gives me a chill.

December 5, 2009 at 12:04 PM

Blogger Leah Sandals said...

Hey Sally,

Thanks for your note.

Hopefully Rose or Bonnie will be able to provide more information about their impressions if you run into them...

And yes, there was a lot of tension with that avoidance of the gaze. It's not an easy film to watch.

December 5, 2009 at 1:45 PM

Anonymous Candice said...

Thanks for the update on how this panel went and great to read your insights into a topic that can be very difficult to unpack.

My worry, and this was not from seeing the exhibition in person but viewing images on line, was that Palataiko in the end only replicated the painful distance found in many of Curtis's still works and did nothing to add to, trouble, or complicate the history of photographic representation of Native people.

I wondered if anyone brought up the immediate co-relation between this project and one done in collaboration with Kwakwaka’wakw people also in relation to Curtis's film, http://www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 ?

From my understanding the latter project was completed with intensive input and consultation with the Kwakwaka’wakw community.

I always hope that artists can find ways of creatively reframing these histories. Unfortunately it seems that instead of shifting the discussion and allowing us to see these images in another way, Polataiko only managed to keep it on the same trajectory.

I think your comment about artists "needing to expand the limits of their practice" when working in another cultural context is on the mark.

December 7, 2009 at 5:21 PM

Blogger Leah Sandals said...

Hi Candice,

Thanks for your reflections.

No one brought up the Rutgers project, though I did stumble across it online. It seems from your comments like this could provide a useful reference point for an alternative way of working.

Playing devil's advocate (or just second guessing myself as usual) what would you say to viewers who might argue that documenting that "replicated distance" is important or worthwhile? I think this is a point that likely can be made by some, even if it's not my personal reaction.

December 8, 2009 at 9:11 AM

Anonymous Rose Bouthillier said...

I’m glad to see that there is an ongoing conversation on this! Part of my interest in interpretations of Polataiko’s video lies in all the details outside of it – just as in Curtis’s photographs and films, there is more than meets the eye. But – does this information change how we consider the work? And should it, if it is not apparent in the work itself?

Polataiko did develop this work through conversations over a long period of time with the Kwakiutl Band Council in Fort Rupert, and was invited to the community. Everyone in attendance signed a release form, and as Bonnie Devine emphasized at the panel, each person had the freedom to communicate with Polataiko that he or she did not want to be videotaped (for example with a hand gesture), though of course that choice and permission in general is always complex, and there are a variety of power dynamics involved.

While there are moments in Polataiko’s work that formally recall Curtis’s photographic portraits, I did not interpret them as replicating the sentiment. I find Sharon Eve Grainger’s project on the Rutgers site, the more direct re-issuing of Curtis’ photos, raises some issues – are these representations the sort of thing Arthur Renwick was responding to with his portrait series 'Masks'? Even if they are produced through collaboration with the sitters?

http://www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=39
http://www.leokamengallery.com/previous/prevRenwickLong.html
http://www.canadianart.ca/art/features/2009/12/01/i-shed-no-tears/

Do Grainger’s photographs “reveal the subtle social relations behind the photographic encounter”? I think that Polataiko’s work does this much more openly – there is a complete range of emotions and exchanges in his work – trust, skepticism, self-consciousness, boredom, pride, laughter. Another important aspect is that Polataiko put himself physically into the work by moving through the crowd with a hand-held camcorder. Most often the photographer remains invisible, as does the ‘process’ of the photo shoot and the editing/selecting of images. Polataiko’s bodily presence and gaze make the work confrontational, and the structural approach to the work invited any sort of encounter. (Note: Polataiko originally conceived of the work as being one solid, unbroken shot for the duration of the Curtis film, though he later decided to edit it down for practical viewing purposes – as a viewer I can’t help but wonder what the quality of that footage was and how different the work would be if it was left in.)

Tension, irony, discomfort… these are all qualities that appear in Polataiko’s work – and not incidentally. These qualities perhaps are incidental to works that I brought up at the panel – for instance Orlan’s 'Self Hybridization' series and Lothar Baumgarten’s 'Monument to the First Peoples of Ontario', that have been criticized as cultural appropriation.

What sorts of collaboration, and what types of knowledge are perceived as necessary, or beneficial to works involving cross-cultural representation? These expectations also depend on a viewer’s understanding of what the artist intended to achieve. Comparing the Rutgers project to Polataiko’s work is complicated. The Rutgers project is undertaken as an academic/cultural endeavor. And while I would be the first to argue the interconnected nature of art and anthropology, these projects answer to very different discourses.

January 15, 2010 at 5:38 PM

Blogger Leah Sandals said...

Thanks for your comment Rose. I agree it takes nerve to insert oneself into a crowd in the way Polataiko did... and I appreciate you pointing out some of the angles we didn't address here!

January 16, 2010 at 6:01 PM

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