Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
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Four Salmon
lessLIE
(Coast Salish)
Northwest Coast
2005
acrylic on canvas
24" x 24"
$ 1,300.00 CDN
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This contemporary Coast Salish design depicts four salmon heads in a
square. As with some of the other works in "oval and oVOID," some people will be able to perceive the influence of Robert Davidson's "Abstract Edge" on this design.
In the history of Northwest Coast art, in what some have called
"historical" times, northern Northwest Coast art had a great influence on
Wakashan art. In cultural contrast to this, as Peter Macnair has noted,
Coast Salish art remained more conservative--a void the ovoid.
Joe David, a great contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth artist, has noted the
commonalities of the design principles of southern Northwest Coast art
forms. As a contemporary Coast Salish artist, I can see some of the
commonalities between Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth art. Some of the
ancient art-if-facts from Nuu-chah-nulth territory, such as whale bone
clubs, utilize some of the same design elements as Coast Salish art (such as crescents, trigons, and concentric circles and ovals). Also, as Margaret
Blackman has written in "Snakes and Clowns," Nuu-chah-nulth art also
underwent a similar history as Coast Salish art. Like Coast Salish art,
Nuu-chah-nulth art was also perceived as "inferior" to northern and
Kwa-kwa-ka-wakw art.
The four pointed star in the center of this design, a design element
characteristic of Nuu-chah-nulth art, represents acceptence of a
Nuu-chah-nulth influence in my work. Some of the younger Coast Salish
artists have my generation consider Nuu-chah-nulth influences to be a
natural progression of the aesthetic acculturation of Coast Salish art.
Accepting Nuu-chah-nulth influences in Coast Salish art is a matter of
cultural conFUSION.
In memory of my late Nuu-chah-nulth friEND, Christina Simms, r.i.p.
--lessLIE
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