Comments on: Art Fag City at The L Magazine: Brian Jungen

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:14:28 +0000

I can’t comment on this body of work because I haven’t seen it, but I think that Brian Jungen is one of the most innovative and exciting Canadian artists today. His retrospective show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal in 2006 was one of the best shows I’ve seen at that gallery.

By: Art Fag City

Art Fag City — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:21:19 +0000

I tend to agree - for some reason though, all (two) of his shows at Casey Kaplan have been bad.

By: Golara Hamzeh

Golara Hamzeh — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:00:36 +0000

Unlike most native Canadians, white Canadians LOVE Brian Jungen for reasons other than art. In Canada, Jungen’s success symbolizes the long awaited compensation for the genocide of Natives. His career is a feel good story for a racist society that until two decades ago was trying so hard to erase the native culture from the face of the country. He also represent the “white-deal” (white ideal) new emerging identity model for natives in Canada: half European and half native, engaged more in modernity that native traditions and culture. Jungen’s work at best romanticizes the defeat of the old native civilizations and their eventual takeover by global capitalism, If Natives were still fighting their insurgency war in the streets of North America, Brian’s mask would not be made of Nike shoes and his ceremonial garment made out of sport jerseys, they would be made like they “should” have been made; with only the native tradition in mind. In this case he would be ignored by the art world but taken care of by the homeland security department. and instead of his work being institutionalized in museums, he would be institutionalized in mental asylum or Guantanamo Bay. Dancing to the tunes of global accumulation of capital in post modern sport Jersys on top of the grave of your ancestors can make you lots of money.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:05:06 +0000

Regarding the show at Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Vancouver. The Totem sculptures were not made from hiking back packs they were made from golf bags.
This suggestion here that Brian Jungen has to better himself with every new concept he comes up with is absurd. In ten years he has presented work with a similar theme. This does not mean he is a one trick pony, ten years is a short amount of time, this ten or so years of work, in the future, will probably be viewed as a whole.
Brian Jungen has produced works that are not related to his native culture at all, proving he does not rely on native themes all the time. It is just easier for us to see him in this light and brush aside the other works. His work transcends just being stuck with traditional ideas presented with consumer materials. His untitled palettes, 10 stacked palettes produced for their esthetics rather than function value have no native connection at all unless you suggest the cedar they are made from is the connection but that is a stretch. It feels better for most to see him that way I guess but I see someone that produces very simple ideas presented in a minimal way. Being seen as native is not important to think about all the time when viewing his work. That is just a way of making ourselves feel safe with his culture. His roots are in northern British Columbia. Far from the ocean where totems, whales and Haida Gwaii blankets exist. He combines native culture in a general way bringing tipi and totems together to make his statements regarding endogenous peoples in Canada. He produces exogenous pieces but as I mentioned is capable of moving away from this theme.
So it seems unless his work is what we want him to produce then we are disappointed. He is not catering to your tastes he is just playing out this excellent body of work which will be viewed together someday long after Brian has moved on with work that probably will settle into more supple themes. We just have to get used to that from artists. Demanding they outdo themselves over and over means we want them to give us our fix. The half native artist Bill Reid produced work propelling native art along making it popular and beautiful. But it is also how we like are native artist to be viewed. With Brian his work is clever and we demand that from him and are disappointed if it does not give us the rush we have had viewing his work in the past, something we should not be doing. He is a native artist and more we just have to look at the bigger picture.
I for one like this body of work for what it is and I am looking forward to seeing where Brian goes. Maybe he will just walk away.

By: Art Fag City

Art Fag City — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:18:36 +0000

The suggestion is not that Jungen has to out do himself with every new body of work - there’s merely the observation that neither of his exhibitions at Casey Kaplan have been good. If you can produce a compelling argument for why you enjoyed this work I’m all ears, but as far as a transformation of materials goes, he’s done far better.