Split personality

by Eve MacLauren

"How do you deal with modernism as a native person, when you have alcoholism, fetal alcoholism, welfare, welfare state, and major human social conditions of oppression?" asks Vancouver artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. "These things are all a part of our daily lives. Native people have to suffer the consequences of colonialism and suffer they do."

Yuxweluptun is caught between the modern world and the world of his ancestors, unable to live uniquely in one or the other. This feeling of being pulled in two directions extends to the exhibit Colour Zone as a whole, as Yuxweluptun's paintings are split between two very different artistic styles. Half are figurative works that combine the surrealism of Dali with Salish spirituality. The rest are abstract works that combine colour-field painting and the ovoid--a shape found in traditional Northwest-Coast art and throughout the figurative works in this exhibition.

Yuxweluptun plays with language, both visual and written, to communicate native issues and to try to find a meeting point between Canada and the First Nations. Can we break free of our prescribed Colour Zone? Find out more at the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery in the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine) until May 27.

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