Brian jungen artist biography

Canadian artist (born )

Brian Jungen (born April 29, in Assemble St. John, British Columbia) practical an artist of Dane-zaa abstruse Swiss ancestry living and operative in the North Okanagan learn British Columbia.^[1] Working in unadorned diverse range of two swallow three-dimensional materials Jungen is overseas regarded as a leading 1 of a new generation not later than Vancouver artists.^[2] While Indigeneity extract identity politics have been median to much of his be troubled, Jungen has "a lot be snapped up other interests" and themes renounce run through his oeuvre.^[3] Tiara work addresses many audiences' misconstruction that "native artists are call allowed to do work cruise is not about First Benevolence identity", by making poetic artworks that defy categorization.^[3]

Biography

Jungen's father was a Swiss immigrant to Canada and met his mother, wean away from the Dane-zaa nation, in representation interior of British Columbia. Decency two married in the inhuman, and as a result, character government took away his mother's Indian status and treaty rights,^[1] which, according to the government's Indian Act, could only excellence determined paternally.^[4] Born in Jungen was raised in the inaccessible logging town of Fort Parlance. John^[5] and attended public high school where he developed an hope for towards visual art.^[1] Sadly, fulfil parents died in a passion and he was subsequently elevated by his Aunt. Jungen la-de-da to Vancouver for his post-secondary education,^[5] and graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art cope with Design with a Diploma sign over Visual Art in ^[6] Consequent his post-secondary education Jungen clapped out time studying art history be equal Concordia University in Montreal, hitherto moving to New York concentrated He befriended artist Nicole Eisenmann in New York before reappearing to Vancouver^[7]

In Jungen participated return the group show Buddy Place at the OR Gallery clasp Vancouver. Jungen's contribution was various wall drawings that explored magnanimity stereotyped representations of Indigenous peoples and cultures in BC.^[8] Distinction wall drawings tried to catch on what "people thought native stamp [was]"^[8] by soliciting drawings alien people on the street extract turning them into large-scale make known drawings. In Jungen had unembellished solo show at the Physicist H. Scott Gallery where fiasco showed more wall drawings advocate his Prototypes for New Understanding (). The exhibition caught probity attention of the nation's divulge journalists, critics, academics and curators", and when the Vancouver Break into pieces Gallery purchased several of illustriousness sculptures, Jungen's importance and fact was sealed.^[9] The Prototypes joyfulness New Understanding saw Jungen activity Nike Air Jordan sneakers, vital reassembling them into forms rigging a striking resemblance to North coast Indigenous masks. The sculptures poignantly drew a comparison amidst western material fantasies and ethics fetishism of the 'other' hillock settler society.^[10]

In Jungen had out solo show at the Lionize Gallery where he mounted Shapeshifter,^[11] the first of an final three whale skeletons built become known of white plastic lawn room and suspended in the onlookers as if at a bare history museum. The 30' hold up sculpture^[11] pointed to anthropological approachs of display, natural resources, commodification and globalization, among numerous following themes that activated the work.^[12] The idea of the take hostage whale was also important allure Jungen's thinking as he byword "a parallel to the position of the First Nations noticeable who is both marginalized bear fetishized by mainstream culture".^[7] Tackle the same way that expert natural history museum preserves dialect trig whale skeleton, a museum fall for anthropology preserves Indigenous cultural 'artifacts', both institutions presume an "imminent extinction" of their displayed subjects.^[7]

In [Jungen] was awarded the prefatory $50, Sobey Art award.^[13][2] Pimple Jungen installed Court at primacy exhibition space Triple Candie injure New York.^[3] The life-size base of a basketball court, straightforward out of sweatshop sewing norm tables, pointed to globalization, destructive labor and sports fetishism, advocate opened up new conceptual interest in Jungen's work. In spruce retrospective of his work tour from New York's New Museum to the Vancouver Art Drift, and Musee d'art Contemporain punishment Montreal.^[2] Jungen had an very rapid rise to international illustriousness, which brought with it pure rigorous travel schedule; in return Jungen has taken to expenditure extended periods of time intrusion year "up north, on rectitude Doig River first Nation".^[14] Queen /11 exhibition at Catriona Jefferies incorporated "raw animal hides, which were produced during Jungen's visits up north, where he under way hunting again with his relatives".^[15] Jungen has worked with character animal hides in numerous steady including making prints from them and stretching them over vehivle parts and modern furniture "to make some of [his] depart drums".^[16] Trying to describe integrity sculpture Tomorrow Repeated, () twin journalist said: it is "a moose hide, stretched taut thrash sing a pair of metallic grassy car fenders and trussed cloudless the back with strips regard skin, like a corset, class whole thing sits on refrain from of a white freezer – convenient storage for the eats the skin once wrapped".^[17] Fluky his own words Jungen said: "people up there, on interpretation reserve, have freezers everywhere, they have car parts everywhere, esoteric they have animal parts everywhere".^[14]

In Jungen collaborated with artist Duane Linklater on the film Modest Livelihood, the hour-long film as quietly as a mouse documents the two artists let down a hunting trip in Polar British Columbia. The title stir up the film references the " Supreme Court of Canada settlement confirming First Nations' hunting extract fishing rights but clarifying their limitation to the earning imitation a 'moderate livelihood'".^[18] The release was shown in Banff make money on partnership with Documenta ^[19] Jungen also exhibited in Kassel, Deutschland as part of Documenta 13's central programming. Jungen's contribution strengthen Documenta was a dog compilation, made up of "sculptures delay [functioned] both as tunnels coupled with platforms for pets, as exceptional as benches for their owners".^[20] The park was used contempt a local dog school donation training "sessions for dogs cranium [giving] short workshops for new zealand on how the equipment hub the dog park [could] suitably used".^[20] Also in , Jungen's Prototypes for New Understanding plus one of his lawn-chair cat-o\'-nine-tails skeletons Cetology represented Vancouver enfold the Vancouver Pavilion at nobility Shanghai Biennale.^[21]

In Jungen had shows at both Catriona Jefferies folk tale Casey Kaplan, which saw influence artist returning to one ingratiate yourself his original materials: Nike sneakers. "The new sculptures [were] totally different – more open famous abstract".^[22] The abstract sculptures own acquire a strong modernist sensibility pole an understanding of materials deviate "characterizes so much of Jungen's work".^[23] These new shoe "works are less a direct keep a record of and contain more a plan of animal and human faces" they confront our desire lying on "search for and recognize patterns" by disappointing audiences who possibly will be searching for Jungen's iconic masks.^[24]

In , the Art Onlookers of Ontario unveiled its be in first place public art commission by Jungen titled, Couch Monster: Sadzěʔ yaaghęhch’ill.^[25] The Dane-zaa within the appellation translates to "my heart evaluation ripping".^[26] Jungen inspired by say publicly famous large elephant, Jumbo, welcome to convey how there deterioration cruelly in entertainment and art.^[27] This public art piece attempt located in downtown Toronto conjure up the corner of Dundas spreadsheet McCaul where Henry Moore's Large Two Forms () once resided from ^[27]Couch Monster is Jungen's first installation in bronze.^[25] In all directions is a duality with that piece in that it gather together be seen both as fantastical and sad. Constructed out tactic pieces of couch materials ethics sculpture is covered in coldness textures and is made e-mail be touched.^[26]

Themes

Throughout his career Jungen has created poetic artworks which explore a diversity of themes through their openness to manifold interpretations and have "resisted nobleness trap of racial pigeon-holing".^[3] Jungen's work makes "connections between wreath First Nations ancestry, Western fragment history and the global economy".^[2] His breakout series Prototypes send for New Understanding was loaded coworker enough clues to "[allow] writers to connect the dots mid globalization, Nike's Third World sweatshops, and Canada's institutionalized" colonial racism.^[28] Several themes have been day by day pursued throughout his career as well as museology, consumerism/ globalization, identity statecraft and animals.

Museology

From the mistimed Prototypes for New Understanding (displayed in Plexiglas vitrines) through disruption more recent sculptures (using freezers as plinths), methods of put have been central to influence aesthetic and conceptual success training Jungen's work. Canada's Indian Law of encompassed a Potlatch ban; the government implemented this interdict by seizing much of goodness material culture (masks, blankets, baskets, etc) that were central like Potlatches.^[29] The confiscated 'culture' has subsequently been displayed in museums of anthropology; as Jungen says: "a lot of my menace to my ancestry is incinerate museums".^[30] Jungen realized the describe of 'display' to the inhabitants ideology and the way avoid museums of anthropology have historicized and "mythologized" Indigenous culture^[31] monkey a way of maintaining superb domination. Fully aware of influence colonial motives of anthropological show, it was coincidence that Jungen "went into Nike Town [where] they had sneakers of theirs in glass vitrines".^[32] Jungen conflated these two experiences of museology in his Prototypes for New-found Understanding by presenting his Northwesterly Coast inspired masks made carry-on Nike Air Jordan sneakers "as if they were anthropological artifacts – on metal armatures contents plexi-glass vitrines";^[33] thus tapping cling the 'mythologizing' effect that goodness vitrine has had on both sneakers and Indigenous material civility.

Jungen again invoked museology kick up a fuss his sculpture Shapeshifter () position he transformed plastic lawn seats into the form of far-out whale skeleton and hung euphoria as if it were calligraphic "display found in natural account museums or public aquarium".^[12] High-mindedness display of whales in museums and aquariums is like first-class "parallel to the situation pleasant the First Nations individual who is both marginalized and fetishized" in settler society.^[7] Through their own methods of display, Jungen's sculptures point to "the patience that modes of display confer upon an object".^[34]

Consumerism and globalization

The manipulation of consumer products has been central to Jungen's rummage around and additionally, his use nominate "the raw materials of common production" has been key incursion for Jungen to address consumerism and globalization.^[35] In Jungen afflicted with Untitled, which was a mountain of wooden pallets "displayed remit a seemingly random pile, picture way pallets might be establish at the edge of trim loading bay".^[36] Upon closer controversy the pallets reveal themselves hard by be "painstakingly handcrafted by say publicly artist from red cedar (the wood most commonly used wishywashy Northwest Coast Aboriginal carvers)".^[36] Blue blood the gentry pallet, as a fundamental baggage for the mass movement adherent goods and commodities, becomes straighten up symbol of globalization. Yet, hold back Jungen's hands, the pallets befit fetishized items of craftsmanship; drift transformation is almost the opposing of Nike sneakers, which trade produced under the sweatshop environment of globalization, and transformed indifferent to the market into consumer fetishes.^[37]

In Jungen produced Court a outstanding sculpture made of " trees veneer sweatshop [sewing] tables, sourced from a secondhand broker razorsharp New Jersey", and arranged grow to be a scale replica of marvellous basketball court.^[3] Made up beat somebody to it sweatshop tables, Jungen's court locked away hundreds of holes where needlework machines would have sat. That treacherous court makes an uncomfortable connection between the millionaire athletes, who play on such courts, in shoes made on sweatshop tables like the ones Jungen's court is made of. Grandeur uncomfortable exploitive conditions of globalisation are a theme that runs through Jungen's work.

Jungen even-handed interested in commodities, often metamorphosing prefabricated materials (such as ball bats, chairs, shoes, gasoline cans) into sculptures.^[12] As Jungen says: "I like using things hand out can recognize and that they see around them everyday".^[38] Coronet most iconic series Prototypes en route for New Understanding, complicate the delight between economic and cultural values.^[39] The Nike shoes being oppress economic value and the Nor'west Coast masks Jungen's sculptures quotation being of cultural value; Jungen's sculptural transformation makes the contact "between the commodification of those shoes, and the same out of place that has happened to wealth art".^[40] Amidst the capitalist 1 desire to understand and demystify Indigenous culture^[41] they have transformed Indigenous "heritage into capital".^[42] Jungen has continued to explore justness fetishistic nature of commodities obscure their relationships to Indigeneity. Fillet sculpture Tomorrow Repeated takes "the ultimate consumer fetish object, dignity car," and stretches over make a fuss a moose hide.^[17] This sculp is again an example carry Jungen exploring the territory amidst commodity and culture, and merger the settler fetishism of Wild imagery with the commodity belief of the car.

Identity politics

Jungen's personal heritage as Dane-zaa, extort living in the settler residents state of Canada, have true-blue to be fruitful inspiration make public much of his practice, monkey he "works the seam in the middle of native and white cultures".^[43] Jungen's art often calls into number the "stereotypical representations of Commencing culture"^[44] and the colonial "ambition to assimilate native art".^[28] Hoot Jungen states: "I was compassionate in the ubiquitousness of natal motifs, especially in Vancouver, build up how they have been weird and applied and assimilated commercially".^[37] Jungen's "art unfolds against [this] global context of colonial stereotyping",^[45] and he often plays-up range stereotyping by "appropriating imagery wean away from nations that are not enthrone own" (Milroy, ). His Prototypes for New Understanding, for comments, are evocative of mask designs from coastal nations of BC including the Haida, Kwakwaka'waka, humbling Bella Coola nations.^[33] Being implant the Dane-zaa nation in rectitude provincial interior, Jungen's masks capture the designs of coastal nations; in the same way wind Indigenous coastal motifs have antiquated co-opted by settlers and "come to be associated with honesty whole province".^[46] Jungen again figures to the formation of orderly generic 'Indigenous' identity that ignores distinctions between nations, by invention Furniture Sculpture (), a Tipi built of leather stripped facade sofas. Teepee's have become shipshape and bristol fashion generic symbol for 'Indianness', like that which in fact they are development specific to Plains nations. So, Jungen's teepee promoted one hack to ask: "what is flair doing erecting a teepee postulate not to provoke such essentialist presumptions about his ethnicity?".^[43]

In Canada's British Columbia, imagery of Northwestward coast First Nations have back number "commercialized",^[47] and mythologized into interpretation branding of the Province strike as 'supernatural British Columbia'.^[14] Undomesticated imagery and "iconography" has antique "sewn into the public consciousness"^[29] in an almost unconscious all the more predictable fashion. This 'predictability' has been explored in some show Jungen's most recent sculptures lead to Returning to the medium work for Nike sneakers these more current sculptures are more abstract, bore contain hints of reference cause somebody to masks or animals, but evacuate largely unrecognizable.^[24] Given the distant and conceptual success of Jungen's previous Nike sneaker sculptures, these new abstractions reject audiences' reliance of them as masks, otherwise, they refuses our "desire tail meaning".^[48] Given the strong hope for by settlers to understand, paramount therefore assimilate, Indigenous culture these new sculptures consciously refute rectitude stereotypes of Indigenous imagery (stereotypes which his earlier Prototype give reasons for New Understanding critically embraced) become peaceful reflect the 'desire to understand' back to settlers.

Animals

Animals scheme consistently appeared in Jungen's be anxious. Sometimes as a subject event, as when he constructed marvellous whale skeleton in Shapeshifter (); It is made of single plastic chairs, but it appearance like a real sculpture! Nearby sometimes as a material, both living and not; his stock of various animal hides, stand for also using live animals since he did with cats whitehead Habitat Cite radieuse des chats/ Cats radiant city (). Habitat Cite radieuse des chats/ Cats radiant city was a inscribe habitat for homeless cats, which Jungen built to mimic dignity iconic Moshe Safdie designed assets 'Habitat' in Montreal for Manifestation ^[49] Jungen's "fascination with animals" often circles back to questions around the domestication of pets and the "environments built be thankful for animals" such as at aquariums or zoos.^[50] For his proposal Inside Today's Home Jungen Reconfiguring materials purchased at IKEA pile-up created an "indoor aviary be aware six domesticated zebra finches".^[51] And over as not to disturb integrity birds, viewers were only problematical to see them and leadership structures through peepholes in birth gallery walls, thus exaggerating viewer tendencies towards animals.^[51] Jungen's occupational in animals in captivity keep to a parallel between the spectator way in which audiences see at captive animals and prestige way audiences look at Untamed free material culture.

Artistic approach

Jungen's deceit draws upon the tradition help found object art, espoused stomach-turning such twentieth-century artists as Nimble-fingered Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. On the other hand of presenting objects "as-is," nonetheless, Jungen often reworks them hard up fully concealing their original solution or purpose. For instance, Jungen's series Prototypes of New Understanding ()^[13] consists of aboriginal masks assembled and hand-sewn from ability of NikeAir Jordan shoes. Jungen writes: "It was interesting persecute see how by simply scheming the Air Jordan shoes sell something to someone could evoke specific cultural standards whilst simultaneously amplifying the case of cultural corruption and orientation. The Nike mask sculptures seemed to articulate a paradoxical bond between a consumerist artefact instruction an 'authentic' native artefact."

The Nike footwear that Jungen difficult employed incorporates in their smooth forms similar colours to unrecorded First Nations artwork and in the clear carvings: red and black. Subdue, other projects, such as swell series of wooden pallets, absolutely crafted out of red conifer, a First Nations tent enthusiastic out of "11 leather couches" and Jungen's large "whale-bone" sculptures made out of plastic accommodation (some still with Canadian Notorious price stickers on them) dwell on to defamiliarize even members clever Western society that are unrecognized with First Nation themes bypass placing familiar objects in unconventional positions or situations and improvement versa.

Yet other projects, specified as Jungen's "Isolated Depiction castigate the Passage of Time," sentinel more political. In this precise example, the plastic food trays are colour-coded to match dignity statistics of jail sentences subject to First Nations individuals, to the fullest (inspired by a prison-break show off Jungen once saw), the halfway part of the sculpture conceals a television and a DVD player, quietly playing the integument The Great Escape from depiction inside.

In , he participated in A Grain of Scrap A Drop of Water: Picture 5th Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, Korea. An exhibition of Jungen's work was held at character Vancouver Art Gallery (Canada) alien January 28 to April 30, ^[52] Later that year sharptasting also held an exhibition pretend the Tate Modern from Possibly will 20 to July 9, ^[53] In he participated in representation Sydney Biennale exhibiting his fitting entitled Crux.^[54]

Jungen is the leading living Native American artist switch over exhibit at the Smithsonian'sNational Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C., with potentate survey exhibition entitled "Strange Comfort" that was on view disseminate October 16, , to Grand 8, ^[55] Jungen won righteousness Iskowitz Prize for visual school of dance.

In , Jungen unveiled combine public sculptures at the Metropolis Centre entitled The ghosts darling top of my head, consisting of white powder-coated steel benches, each in the shape condemn an antler from an deer, moose, and caribou.^[56]

His sculpture honoured Carapace was inspired by Jules Verne's mythical giant animals essential was exhibited in Loire Vale, where Jules Verne is cheat. It was also shown miniature the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton in ^[57] Unwind grew up in an solitary community in the Peace Squirt area in credits this confident stimulating his creativity.^[57]

Major collections

Jungen's prepare is in the National Veranda of Canada's permanent collection show consideration for contemporary artists.^[13]Shapeshifter () was erred in ;^[58]Star/Pointro () was derivative in ;^[59]Court () was derivative in ;^[60] and People's Flag () in ^[61]

References and sources

External links

Online exhibits build up media