Place, Memory, Narrative: Northwest Coast Native Literature and Printmaking
REVISED
Fall 2015 and Winter 2016 quarters
Taught by
What is the relationship between landscape and art? How do people map and define the Pacific Northwest? Within the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and the province of British Columbia there is a great diversity of Indigenous people: Pacific Northwest Coast, Coast Salish, Interior Plateau, and Interior Salish. Through literature and studio practice in serigraphy printmaking, or screen-printing, we will explore and research the historical and contemporary perspectives of traditional and innovative Indigenous artists from the Pacific Northwest regions. The printmaking studio component will address diverse visual languages, design strategies, and regional traditions.
In this program we will study the ways that place affects art and literature, and link these processes to Indigenous nation-building. We will learn the histories of the region, from tribal creation stories to contemporary case studies of nationhood. We will critically consider dominant narratives, or the stories about Native people that have been disseminated in popular culture and public education, and compare and contrast that to the stories that Native people tell. The different cultural geographies and placemaking of Northwest Coast Native people are linked to ideas about “home” and recreate flexible understandings of space and identity.
Our focus will be on writers and artists who see their art-making as both critically engaged and as part of their relationship to their communities. We will contrast visual sovereignty to intellectual and political sovereignty, defined as an Indigenous community’s or individual’s right to create a space for self-definition and determination. Students will learn about the different ways that Native communities have employed images and objects as links to history, identity, culture, function and ceremony.
This is an entry-level program in which students will build critical analytical skills through rigorous reading and writing, as well as develop the foundations of studio art practice in the printmaking process of serigraphy. Working only on paper, students will learn to create both hand-drawn and computer generated stencils for use with the photo-emulsion printing techniques. Students will create a conceptual body of work with an emphasis on professional editioning practices.
We welcome students who do not identify as artists, but have a deep interest, and all students will work to better understand their place in relationship to the dominant arts canon. Faculty will work with students to develop different forms of literacies, including visual, cultural, and political. These skills are often prerequisites for students who plan to become teachers.
Students will be expected to integrate extensive readings, lecture notes, studio experiences, films, interviews and other sources in writing assignments. We will consider settler colonialism as a necessary context, but not the only frame for understanding Indigenous people. Rather, we will emphasize the resiliency and persistence of Indigenous nations.
Program Details
Fields of Study
Preparatory for studies or careers in
Location and Schedule
Campus location
Olympia
Schedule
Offered during: Day
Advertised schedule: First winter class meeting : Tuesday, January 5 at 9am (Longhouse 1007A)
Books
Online Learning
Required Fees
Special Expenses
Revisions
Date | Revision |
---|---|
December 21st, 2015 | This program will now accept students of all class levels (Fr-Sr). |
June 11th, 2015 | Description has been updated. |
May 13th, 2015 | Special expense clarified (Students can expect to pay up to $150 for printmaking materials: printing paper, and personal supplies. Costs may vary depending on student's individual scale of their projects.) |
March 4th, 2015 | New fall-winter opportunity added. |