 |
|
Artist / Maker : |
Hunt, Calvin
|
|
Title : |
Whale Hunting Ritual
|
|
Date (Execution) : |
1998
|
|
Geographical Origin : |
Tsaxis (Fort Rupert); British Columbia; Canada
|
|
Cultural Group : |
Kwakwaka'wakw
|
|
Style / Period : |
Contemporary 1950 -
|
|
Medium / Material : |
Serigraph
|
|
Support / Technique : |
paper
|
|
Object Type : |
screen prints
|
|
Visual Description : |
Black canoe and a red and blue whale beneath it.
|
|
Accession # : |
U014.3.253
|
|
Width (cm) : |
72.50
|
|
Height (cm) : |
25.50
|
|
Depth (cm) : |
|
|
Mandatory Credit : |
Gift from the Collection of George and Christiane Smyth
|
|
Artist Statement :
"I incorporated a Westcoast canoe design with a portion of a ritual done when a whale hunter is preparing for his hunt. From the whaling legends there's this remarkable fact that the Whale sometimes hugged the canoe! The whaling canoe was sort of like a whale in size and shape. During the ritual preparations for whaling, they refer to the whales being drawn to the whaler by sexual attraction, and in one prayer for success the Whaler's wife says:
'May I bend the minds of the boy whales,' she said as the wife also prayed. 'May they come to me, may I cause their minds to weaken, may they desire to mate with me. May there be many who desire to mate with me, many young boy whales.'
My Westcoast lineage comes from my Grandfather, Dr. Billy from Friendly Cove. His name was passed to me, Nas-um-yos, meaning Break of Dawn." - Calvin Hunt
|
|