**October 2012 Focus - Focus Magazine

Whispers and shouts
AAREN MADDEN
Starting a conversation on eroticism in
contemporary Kwakwaka’wakw art.
Cultural anthropologist Wilson Duff
wrote in a 1976 essay, “sexual symbolism
is so important in the arts of the world
and elsewhere that I feel that its virtual absence
on the surface of Northwest Coast art permits
us to suspect that we might find it in metaphorical
forms below the surface.”
In what may be a first-of-its kind exhibit,
seven contemporary Kwakwaka’wakw artists
have embraced the task of exploring eroticism
in Northwest Coast art tradition. For the October
show at Alcheringa Gallery—called Lusa’nala
(The way we came into this world)—they have
created thoughtful, sometimes playful, two
and three-dimensional artworks on the theme.
The concept for the show initially bemused
some. When Rande Cook invited fellow artist
Francis Dick to take part in the exhibition, she
wondered, “What does that even mean? And
how are you going to depict that in Northwest
Coast form?” Elaine Monds, director of the
gallery, admits, “To be honest, when it was
first mentioned to me, I said I thought you’d
have to have a very vivid imagination to find
erotica in Northwest Coast art.”
Monds, however, became convinced of the
merits of the project when prominent
Kwakwaka’wakw carver Calvin Hunt talked
to her about both the idea and a historical
precedent for the theme. He had long been
intrigued by that Wilson Duff article, titled
“The World is as Sharp as a Knife.” In it, Duff
suggested that ancient stone hammers, for
instance, can be viewed as phallic or vulvic.
He and other scholars acknowledge layered
sexual imagery in the Sechelt Image as well
(an important prehistoric stone carving of a
human figure, so named because it was found
there in 1921). More recently, Haida argillite
panel pipes have shown creatures sharing the
same tongue, which Duff interpreted as metaphor
for sexual union. His point was that different
ways of looking at Northwest Coast artwork
overall might reveal layers of meaning that
have gone largely unconsidered.
Calvin Hunt understands the resistance.
“When the church came, people were afraid
to get involved in the art world and get involved
in those symbolisms; it seemed to be taboo,”
he says. Sexual imagery sometimes appeared
20 October 2012 • FOCUS