KQED: Space
Artist: Brian Jungen
Brian Jungen is an indigenous artist who found his art inspiration at an art gallery in New York. He only found Indigenous artwork displayed in the fossils and butterflies’ section, and as though it was nature and not culture.
In 2000 he created the Shapeshifter piece, and at first glance, you would recognize his piece in being in the nature museum. He wanted to display fluid boundaries between Aboriginal and western cultures and ask his audience to consider the skeleton of a whale. If you look closely the bones are actually sculpted from discarded Canadian Tire lawn chairs. His inspiration for the piece came from how whale oil once fuelled cities and was eventually replaced by petroleum, which is the same material found in the cheap disposable chairs. To bring recognition to the captivity, unethical, and non-environmental values of western society. This sculpture is 4.7 ft x 22 ft x 4.3 ft. Aboriginals consider the whale to be of great spiritual power and the title shapeshifter refers to the spiritual process of transformation from human to animal or vice versa.
In 1998 the Nike Running shoe inspiration started his career, and he makes his work to compel his audience to reflect on societies damaging challenges of dispossession, appropriation, the dichotomy of consumerism, and environmentalism. He started to reassemble Air Jordan’s in new ways and formed masks and headdresses, and totem poles, that would be familiar to anyone who has seen Indigenous artifacts before. He compared cutting up the Jordan’s to gutting a salmon or skinning a moose.
ARTWORK
Drawing in 1 Point Perspective:
Instructions: This video gives great instructions on using space and perspectives to create a fun drawing.
Materials:
- Pencil
- Video
- Eraser
- Ruler
Here’s my own sketch, from following the video and using a one-point perspective.
