Acquisitions Justification
Acquisition Record
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Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
b. 1957, Kamloops, B.C.

Chump Change, The Impending Nisgaa Land Deal, New Borders, The Last Stand 1996
acrylic on canvas
6' x 7' (approx.)

Vendor: the artist

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun was born in Kamloops in 1957 of Okanagan and Coast Salish descent. Yuxweluptun grew up in Vancouver and he counts himself among the over 40,000 urban Indians living in the lower mainland. Coast Salish is his cultural affiliation and he began dancing the Sxwayxwey mask at age fourteen, a right he inherited from his father, Ben Paul. At seventeen, he was initiated as a Black Face dancer. Yuxweluptun's work is overtly political, dealing with such critical issues as land claims, the environment, and racism. This focus is inspired by the extensive activities of his parents (Yuxweluptun's mother was involved with the Indian Home-makers Association and his father headed the Union of B.C. chiefs, both parents were active in the North American Indian Brotherhood). "As a boy Yuxweluptun travelled with his parents all over the province to meetings; their hope was that he would become a politician. Now his father sees that he is concerned with the same politics as himself, if in different ways." ¹

Yuxweluptun completed a B.F.A. (with Honours) at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1983. He has exhibited regularly across Canada since 1984 and was included in Indigena: Contemporary First Nations Perspectives (Museum of Civilization, 1992) and Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada (1992). A comprehensive retrospective Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Born to Live and Die on Your Colonialist Reservations marked the opening of the new Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia (1995). Yuxweluptun's subject and signature style have remained consistent to date. Typical of the painter's work is the combination of a broad range of styles drawn from both First Nations and Western traditions. Yuxweluptun populates his Daliesque landscapes, dark interiors, and urban environments with characters constructed of a mix of "realism" and traditional First Nations motifs and graphic styles (this also true of his treatment of the landscape with clearly defined geographic forms "blanketed" by "masks"). The resulting works are often garish, cartoon-like, and embody Yuxweluptun's cutting, black sense of humour. His works can be generally divided into three


1 Charlotte Townsend-Gault, The Salvation Art of Yuxweluptun, published in Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Born to Live and Die on Your Colonial Reservations. Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, June 20 - September 16, 1996, page 8.


separate (but by no means distinct) areas, Native rights (to land and culture), the state of the environment, and religious painting.

Red Man Watching White Man Trying to Fix Hole in Sky (1990), currently on display at the Gallery, is clearly an environmental work. It depicts a tiny white "scientist", under observation of the giant "Red Man", attempting to patch the hole in the ozone layer. The work clearly articulates Yuxweluptun's opinion of who is responsible for the current state of the environment. A work such as Night in a Salish Longhouse, also currently at the Gallery, can be considered one of Yuxweluptun's religious works. The work is based on a vision encountered by the artist during a religious ceremony. While the environmental and religious works are significant, the paintings which deal with Native rights are the most compelling because it is in these works that the complexity of Yuxweluptun's understanding of contemporary issues facing First Nations peoples is most clearly articulated and where his questioning of the beliefs and actions of First Nations communities is most evident. Chump Change, presented here for acquisition, can be considered a major work within this important aspect of Yuxweluptun's production. It is his boldest work to date dealing with the subject of land claims. Further, as the formal negotiation of the Nisgaa land claim was initiated in this building when it functioned as the Provincial Court House, the artist believes the painting has an important relationship with this place and "belongs" here.

In such early pieces as Haida Hotdog (1984) and Alcoholics on the Reservation (1988), Yuxweluptun engages problematic issues rarely incorporated into "traditional" First Nations work. Haida Hotdog, which depicts a traditional Haida motif adorning a wiener, addresses the blending of cultures and questions the idea of a pure traditional culture within First Nations communities. Alcoholics on the Reservation confronts in a very direct, visceral way, the existence of alcohol abuse and violence on the reserve, an aspect of First Nations' culture never depicted in the "traditional" work mass marketed to tourists and officially supported by government. In Chump Change, Yuxweluptun casts a sharp, critical eye on the recent Nisgaa land claim settlement and his view is damning of both the Provincial and Federal Governments as well as the Nisgaa representatives who have settled, as the title clearly identifies, for "chump change." As with the two earlier works sited, Yuxweluptun does not shy away from critiquing aspects of First Nations communities.

In this garishly painted scene, the "chump change" trickles through the fingers of the Nisgaa figure who stares pathetically out at the viewer. To the left, a white negotiator strides out of the scene, the agreement in his briefcase. Such negotiators have emerged as a regular presence in Yuxweluptun's work. The white figure has crossed over the "new border" line which now defines the land claim, the two Nisgaa figures remain within the border and a significant, subtle touch on the artist's part is the inclusion of a bear's footprint which (as the artist

states) will not cross the line. To the right, looming over the scene is the "last stand" two poles reaching out of the picture casting long shadows. The work brings together the breadth of Yuxweluptun's interests. The work is obviously about land claims but it is also about much more. It addresses an exploitive relationship between cultures in conflict, it deals with clearcutting and the obliteration of the landscape, and it openly engages contemporary political debates within First Nations communities.

Chump Change, The Impending Nisgaa Land Deal, New Borders, The Last Stand would be a significant acquisition as it would be the first major work by Yuxweluptun to enter the collection. The work reflects the three recently established areas of collection strategy—a contemporary view of the British Columbia landscape, the work also addresses issues of identity while adopting and critiquing modernist models of painting. As with all of Yuxweluptun's works, the painting aggressively plunders a wide range of cultural sources (a humourous reversal of the appropriation of indigenous cultures by many modern "masters"), clearly undermining the position of First Nations "traditionalists" and modern anthropological theories of pure, distinct cultures. As with the works by Patricia Deadman also being presented, this acquisition would add to the Gallery's holdings of work by contemporary First Nations artists.

Recommendation: Purchase


Andrew Hunter
Associate Curator