Overview

Miniature canoes, houses and totems, and human figurines have been produced on the Northwest Coast since at least the sixteenth century. What has motivated Indigenous artists to produce these tiny artworks? Are they curios, toys, art, or something else? So Much More Than Art is a highly original exploration of this intricate cultural pursuit. Through case studies and conversations with contemporary Indigenous artists, Jack Davy uncovers the ways in which miniatures have functioned as crucial components of satirical opposition to colonial government, preservation of traditional techniques, and political and legal negotiation. This nuanced study of a hitherto misunderstood practice demonstrates the importance of miniaturization as a technique for communicating complex cultural ideas between generations and communities, and across the divide that separates Indigenous and settler societies. Most of all, So Much More Than Art is a testament to the cultural resilience of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast.

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9780774866552

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So Much More Than Art goes beyond other studies by demonstrating how Northwest Coast Indigenous artists use and have used miniaturization not only as an artistic practice but in provoking interventions in social relations and as a strategy of communication and resistance in the face of colonialism. --Karen Duffek, Museum of Anthropology at University of British Columbia

Author Information

Jack Davy is head curator at the Morley Gallery, London, UK. He is a co-editor, with Charlotte Dixon, of Worlds in Miniature: Contemplating Miniaturisation in Global Material Culture, and has published in Anthropology Today, Journal of Material Culture, International Journal of Heritage Studies, and American Indian Culture and Research Journal. He has worked for the British Museum, the Horniman Museum, and the Beyond the Spectacle project at the University of East Anglia.

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