„Szaman nigdy nie umiera”. Sztuka naskalna jako wyraz tożsamości w twórczości Jane Ash Poitras

Abstract

This article discusses the phenomenon of reusing of ancient rock art iconography in modern art on the example of the artworks of Canadian Cree visual artist Jane Ash Poitras. To understand the role the rock art plays in the collages of J.A. Poitras, the first part of the paper is focused on the Indigenous perspective, which provides the clue to reading complexity of history and contemporary art of the First Nations in Canada. Then the painting Shaman never die V is thoroughly analyzed. It is showed that rock art motifs used in this artwork had been very carefully selected and the meanings they evoke significantly go in pair with wider ideas related to traumatic history of Indigenous Canadians as well as ideas related to persistence of Indigenous spirituality symbolized by the image of shaman.

Rock art as a source of contemporary cultural identity: a Siberian-Canadian Comparative Study

“…Shamanism and rock art are themes that the Indigenous Canadian artists followed and continue to follow (Rozwadowski, 2019a). In terms of rock art, the rock paintings of the Canadian Shield were particularly important for the Anishnaabe artists, while for others rock images located in regions where they lived or to which they were culturally related took precedent.…”

“…In terms of rock art, the rock paintings of the Canadian Shield were particularly important for the Anishnaabe artists, while for others rock images located in regions where they lived or to which they were culturally related took precedent. Jane Ash Poitras and Joane Cardinal-Schubert, for example, held the rock art of the Great Plains in particular importance, especially images from the site of Áísínai'pi (Writing-on-Stone) in southern Alberta, which they personally visited (Rozwadowski, 2019a;MacRae, 2021). Writing-on-Stone is not only one of the largest concentrations of rock art in Canada, but also a place where the tradition of making images on rocks continued up to historical times, with the last documented episode dating to 1924.…”

Visual Culture, Heritage and Identity: Using Rock Art to Reconnect Past and Present

“…Canada is an attention-grabbing region when we consider the re-use of rock art. Equally powerful transformations of rock art motifs into symbols of identity can be found in the art of Jane Ash Poitras, a Cree artist who also lives in Alberta (McCallum 2011;Rozwadowski 2019). To a lesser extent, we find rock art motifs in the works of other First Nation artists (such as Carl Ray, Carl Beam, and contemporary artists Alan Syliboy and Marianne Nicolson), all of whom continue the tradition started by a true legend of Indigenous Canadian modern art, the Ojibwa (Anishinaabe) artist Norval Morrisseau (McLuhan and Hill 1984).…”

“…Dowson 1996): that is, to increase and broaden awareness of the role of rock art in the contemporary world (e.g. Baracchini and Monney 2018;Blundell and Woolagoodja 2012;Blundell et al 2018;Brady and Taçon 2016;Gwasira et al 2017;Rogers 2018;Rozwadowski 2014Rozwadowski , 2019Russell and Russell-Cook 2018). As Marisa Giorgi and Dale Harding state, one admirable -and indeed achievable -aim is surely to overcome 'a static view of rock art as being from the past and not having contemporary relevance.…”