If an author gave you permission to rip out the pages of his book, would you dare? Very few authors write books intending audiences to directly alter or engage in their works; however, this component is frequently seen in visual or situational art installations. For Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, a contemporary visual artist and author, this is completely acceptable.
Red: A Haida Manga was created as a single large-scale mural (4.5 metres tall by two metres wide) and later deconstructed to form a 108-page book. So if you want to cut up two copies of the recently released paperback edition to reassemble the original image, Yahgulanaas has given his consent.
Yahgulanaas is the creator of a new style of graphic novel called “Haida Manga” which combines First Nations’ art style and tales with the Japanese graphic novel form of manga.
Yahgulanaas uses his distinct style of art to give life to the tales of the peoples of Haida Gwaii. He brings the characters to life with minimal realistic detail, yet incredible visual style, using simple iconic forms to express complex meanings. The pages are filled with vibrant colours, including the traditional Haida tri-colour scheme of black, red, and blue-green.
Red: A Haida Manga, an award-nominated title published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2009, is based on an oral Haida narrative. Red and his sister Jaada are both orphans living in a coastal community not unlike the Haida. Raiders attack their village and abduct Jaada when Red is still a boy. As Red matures into manhood, he becomes the chief of the village, but grows up feeling responsible for the capture of his sister.
Yahgulanaas uses his distinct style of art to give life to the tales of the peoples of Haida Gwaii.
When news comes that his sister was spotted in a nearby village, Red is filled with rage and blinded by revenge. He leads his community to the brink of war and destruction in an effort to exact retribution on his sister’s captors.
Thick black outlines — called formlines in Haida art — sweep through the pages, echoing manga comic panels. However, where most comics have breaks and white space between the images, Yagulanaas feels that everything outside those panels becomes blank and vacant.
For him, it is a more honest depiction to fill up the dividers with a black formline, creating a continuous element in the formerly empty spaces and eroding hierarchy. He frequently incorporates the formline into the story, to create depth, indicate movement and narrative flow, or as a space for text.
The book launch for the paperback edition of Red: A Haida Manga coincided with a gallery exhibit, which opened on May 3. This is Yahgulanaas’s third solo exhibit at the Douglas Udell Gallery in Vancouver, and debuts the latest pieces in his Coppers from the Hood series. The exhibit, entitled SOLO 3, is actually his fourth unaccompanied exhibit for the Udell Gallery, if you include the Douglas Udell Gallery in Edmonton.
The Coppers from the Hood series was inaugurated in 2007 at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC; its pieces have been internationally exhibited and collected. Yahgulanaas uses metal automobile hoods, covers them in copper leaf, and paints distinctive Haida Manga imagery.
The latest coppers for the series continue to explore fetishes and embark on a study of the “sacred geography of multiple genders.” The exhibit also includes new works on paper including watercolour and graphite drawings from an ongoing series, as well as the Flappes series, which is similar to the Coppers from the Hood series but based on gas cap lid doors.
Yahgulanaas studied with Haida master carvers as well as a Chinese brush painter and is influenced visually by Japanese wood-block printing, contemporary manga, and ancient Haida panel pipes. He also spent three decades working with First Nations and environmental groups to preserve the Haida Gwaii lands on the former Queen Charlotte Islands, and to maintain the independence of the Haida people. His work frequently incorporates contemporary social issues into mediums that are easy to comprehend by the masses.
The exhibit runs through May 24 and paperback copies of Red are available for sale at the gallery. Pick up a couple copies of the book, recreate the mural, and see if you can identify the three Haida animals hidden within the formlines.
