Brian Jungen, Shapeshifter, 2000.

Jungen is a British Columbian artist of mixed European and Aboriginal background. He created a series of monumental whale skeleton sculptures made of cheap acrylic lawn chairs. Apparently the whale represented, to Jungen, museums’ fascination with Native art as being exotic and Other. He saw some parallel between the treatment of whale skeletons and the displays of native culture - treated as something that is otherworldly and beautiful but something that is segregated away from what is designated ‘normal’. It underlines issues of race and culture in museum displays and the ways in which we fetishize Native art.

(Submitted by icanseethecntower)

Posted on January 22 2012, with 218 Notes

1. icantbelieveitsnotbutler likes this
2. afraidofme reblogged this from cavetocanvas
3. helenaisbatmannow reblogged this from katiepithecus
4. asplosion reblogged this from cavetocanvas
5. itsnothowitlooks reblogged this from cavetocanvas
6. thsmchnkllsfscsts reblogged this from utterlychangedintofire
7. utterlychangedintofire reblogged this from madonnawithlion and added:

   I remember walking around under one of his whale skeletons in the ROM a few years ago. It was pretty breath-taking.

8. byebye-minzy reblogged this from cavetocanvas and added:

   Omo…this is nice.

9. itsachrysis likes this
10. meles-meles reblogged this from cavetocanvas
11. spontaaa-land likes this
12. aldrichintherye reblogged this from lightingstrike
13. mydressmysail likes this
14. lightingstrike reblogged this from cavetocanvas
15. douce--amere reblogged this from cavetocanvas
16. derbydoom likes this
17. mcdorkypants reblogged this from greatmindsofscience
18. emkaydee26 reblogged this from cavetocanvas
19. tjnak reblogged this from cavetocanvas
20. pamplemoussi likes this
21. googleberry likes this
22. gardant likes this
23. dakreeeets reblogged this from alphacaeli
24. huong1952 likes this
25. theladygoogle likes this
26. alphacaeli reblogged this from katiepithecus and added:

    I would argue that museums fetishise everything within them, not only Native art. A museum’s raison d’etre is...

27. gloriousmadness likes this
28. katiepithecus likes this
29. katiepithecus reblogged this from catlion
30. formyevann reblogged this from cavetocanvas
31. sweetsweetrebel reblogged this from cavetocanvas
32. caravagina reblogged this from cavetocanvas
33. proem likes this
34. architecturalheritage likes this
35. sorazg reblogged this from wishnya
36. theyreadbooks likes this
37. ebrrrr reblogged this from cavetocanvas
38. catlion reblogged this from cavetocanvas
39. heidrik likes this
40. wishnya reblogged this from cavetocanvas
41. lafemmesardine likes this
42. bernardsdiscounttent reblogged this from cavetocanvas
43. panicinthestudio likes this
44. sirobtep reblogged this from cavetocanvas
45. krazey88killas likes this
46. thisissolow likes this
47. sirobtep likes this
48. pencilsaurus reblogged this from desliz
49. desliz reblogged this from cavetocanvas
50. bzedan likes this
51. Show more notesLoading...