Canadian Artist: Brian Jungen

Brian Jungen is from British Columbia with Swiss and Dunne-za First Nations roots; he is based in Vancouver. Jungen was born in Fort St. John, British Columbia on April 29, 1970. He graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1992

Jungen's art draws upon the tradition of "found art," supported by such twentieth-century artists as Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp.

The term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from the *undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a *mundane, *utilitarian function.

A playful man and a French artist Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968, was the originator of ‘found art’ in the early 20th-Century. He pushed thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much with words, but with actions such as calling a urinal art and naming it Fountain.

1.

2.

3.

4.

*Undisguised: plain to see, recognized.*Mundane: common, ordinary, unimaginative.*Utilitarian: usefulness rather than beauty.

Instead of presenting objects "as-is," however, Jungen often reworks them without fully concealing their original meaning or purpose. For instance, Jungen's series Prototypes of New Understanding consists of aboriginal masks assembled from parts of Nike Air Jordan shoes and hand-sewn. Jungen writes: "It was interesting to see how by simply manipulating the Air Jordan shoes you could evoke specific cultural traditions whilst simultaneously amplifying the process of cultural corruption and assimilation. The Nike mask sculptures seemed to articulate a paradoxical relationship between a consumerist artefact and an 'authentic' native artifact."

MasksLike totem poles, Aboriginal masks depict different symbols used in the stories of a tribe. The masks carved for a tribe are used for ceremonial purposes. The most common symbols on both masks and totems are: the thunderbird, killer whale, frog, salmon, beaver, bear, wolf, sun, moon and raven.

The Nike footwear that Jungen had employed incorporates in their unmodified forms similar colours to traditional First Nations artwork and wood carvings: red and black.

Title: Prototype for New Understanding #8, 1999Materials: Nike athletic footwear, human hair

Title: Raven's JourneyArtist: Douglas DavidMaterials: Nuu-Chah-NulthCedar, Cedar Bark, Feathers23" x 10" x 25"

However, other projects, such as a series of wooden pallets, painstakingly crafted out of red cedar, a First Nations tent made out of "11 leather couches" and Jungen's large "whale-bone" sculptures made out of plastic chairs (some still with Canadian Tire price stickers on them) seek to defamiliarize* even members of Western society that are unfamiliar with First Nation themes by placing familiar objects in unfamiliar positions or situations and vice versa.

*Defamiliarization is the artistic technique of forcing the audience to see common things in an unfamiliar or strange way, in order to enhance perception of the familiar. A basic satirical tactic, it is a central concept of 20th century art.

Title: Cetology*, 2002Materials: Plastic chairs

*Cetology is the branch of zoology dealing with whales and dolphins.