Haida Gwaii artist draws beautiful lines and crosses cultural and artistic boundaries

Red, an innovative and stunning story in the Haida Manga style. | Photo courtesy of Indian Summer Festival

Red, an innovative and stunning story in the Haida Manga style. | Photo courtesy of Indian Summer Festival

The 2014 Indian Summer Festival’s Artpolitik: Culture and the Graphic Novel brings Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas to Vancouver on July 9, along with Indian graphic artist Orijit Sen and architect David Wong, to discuss their work and the storytelling power of the graphic novel.

This power lies not only in its captivating intersection of image and text, but also in its undoubted accessibility. Graphic novels tell stories visually, sharing complex ideas in a way that transcends barriers in communication. For artist and author Yahgulanaas, that accessibility is the most striking quality of visual storytelling.

“A graphic novel contains the possibility of speaking with people outside of cultural, ethnic and class enclaves, without the constraints of language or literacy,” says Yahgulanaas, who belongs to the Lanaas nation of Haida Gwaii.

Ideas of the Coast

Haida Gwaii artist and author,  Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. | Photo courtesy of Indian Summer Festival

Haida Gwaii artist and author, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. | Photo courtesy of Indian Summer Festival

Yahgulanaas, who considers the graphic novel to be a spectacular union of idea and form, is known for his innovative Haida Manga style. It is a unique form of graphic art that blends Haida art with Japanese manga.

His highly regarded graphic novel, Red, displays this original style while telling the tragic story of a vengeful leader who leads his community to the brink of destruction.

At Artpolitik, he plans to address the political and cultural influence of the graphic novel within the contemporary context of the West Coast of Canada.

“The relationship between the Nation State and Indigenous peoples will be a constant theme in my talk,” he says.

Although this relationship is loaded with political, economic, and social tensions, Yahgulanaas doesn’t consider his work to be ‘capital-P’ political.

“[It is] more like an invitation to explore personal responsibility and engagement in issues that are inherently political,” he says.

A significant part of what led Yahgulanaas to work in illustration was his exposure to drawing in early childhood. He points out that in the 1960s resources on more classical forms of Western art were not common on Haida Gwaii, and this significantly influenced his introduction to art and his immersion in drawing.

“When I was able to put more thought into art as a form of communicating ideas of interest with other people, it became obvious that cartooning was a potent accessible vehicle,” says Yahgulanaas, who points to editorial cartoons as a strong example of this.

Crossing the line
As the years passed, Yahgulanaas developed a deep appreciation for illustration, and while he respected the complexity of the form, he quickly realized that he was most inspired by what it could express.

“I wanted to convey ideas more than I wanted to convey beautiful lines,” he says.

This motivation is apparent in Yahgulanaas’ body of work, which reaches far beyond illustration into painting, sculpture and installation. Working with a variety of materials, Yahgulanaas’ artwork is exceptionally diverse and continuously transforming.

In his 2012 Flappes series, he examined the highly symbolic status of the automobile, creating stunning visual art with gas-cap lids covered in copper leaf and painted with bold images.

“[I] wonder about the ideas that inform the object and about the ideas that are created by persons viewing the object,” he says.

Presently, Yahgulanaas continues to explore these questions in the realm of public art, producing 10-metre tall works in steel that create new relationships between viewer and object.

As his practice evolves, Yahgulanaas anticipates that his subject matter will change as well.

“I’m cataloging all my works and developing a comprehensive database in preparation of what I anticipate to be a time of changes in my work,” he says.

Artpolitik: Culture and the Graphic Novel
July 9, 6 p.m
SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
For more information, please visit www.indiansummerfestival.ca