Arts and Literature in Canada:Views from Abroad, Les arts et la ...

IJCS/RIÉCalso situationally and conceptually united with, if indirectly derived from, theland and its heritage. 9Through designs conceived to engage a tangible relationship between our timeand its position in a larger historical continuum, Erickson's architectureappears to overarch the modernism/postmodernism dialectic. This isespecially true of his Anthropology Museum. In a scheme that balances aFigure 9.Canadian Chancery. Detail, “Rotunda of the Provinces” looking toward the National Gallery ofArt (author).functionally complex, yet mythologically rich program, High Moderntectonics convey traditional meanings. Its rhythmically varied concrete postsand beams echo the formal qualities of the totems they contain; so too thebuilding silhouette recalls, on a far larger scale, the profile of a Haida house.Great glass walls foster an interpenetration of light and space that allow thepicturesque landscape and its implicit indigenous traditions to permeate thebuilding. 10In its celebration of difference—another concern endemic to postmoderndiscourse—the museum is unique among Erickson's works. Designed tohouse artifacts of Northwest coast Indians, the Anthropology Museum bringsto the Canadian mainstream the legacy of heretofore marginalized minoritycultures. Although Erickson (cited in Iglauer, 1981, p. 116) professed“profound regard for the traditions of Canada's native people,” the buildingcan be understood in terms of postmodernism's double-coding. It portrays bothhow Native people represented themselves and how Erickson, a member of thedominant, white Canadian culture, represented them. The indigenous totems38