Mischief Making
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Art, and the Seriousness of Play
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of British Columbia Press
Published:15th Oct '21
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In a gorgeously illustrated exploration of the art of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Mischief Making disproves any notion that play is frivolous. Deploying mischievous tactics, Yahgulanaas shines a spotlight on serious topics.
Expressive and exuberant, comic and imaginative: these characteristics suffuse the work of the internationally recognized creator of Haida manga. His distinctive style stretches, twists, and flips the formlines of classic Haida art to create imagery that resonates with the graphic vitality of Asian manga. Mischief Making delineates the evolution of the artist’s visual practice into a uniquely hybrid aesthetic, uncovering its philosophical underpinnings.
This engaging, beautiful book reveals the artist’s deep understanding of the seriousness of play. As he investigates the intersections of Indigenous and other worldviews, the politics of land, cultural heritage, and global ecology, Yahgulanaas disrupts the expected, allowing different ways of experiencing, knowing, and seeing the world to emerge.
Yahgulanaas' work is meticulously analyzed by Levell to expose deeper levels of motivation in the work of one of the most consistently inventive contemporary Indigenous artists working in the world today. -- Stuart Derdeyn * Vancouver Sun *
Exuberant and playful, Yahgulanaas's art nonetheless has a serious underpinning and he has a long history of environmental and political activism. * BC Book World *
"Levell’s work details the sometimes tremendously difficult and fraught conversations at the very limits of narrative and artistic practice."
-- Laura A. Pearson, Huron University College * University of Toronto Quarterly. *[In this book], Levell's skill as a writer shines in her vivid descriptions and analysis of art works included as illustrations. Her academic knowledge and experience as a curator is also on full display in the relationships she traces between Yahgulanaas and other contemporary artists. -- Bryan Myles, Simon Fraser University * BC Studies *
Lavishly illustrated and comprehensively researched, it demonstrates a non-linear, Haida manga-style approach to considering Yahgulanaas’ extraordinarily complex art work. -- Victoria Wyatt, University of Victoria * The British Columbia Review *
ISBN: 9780774867368
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 660g
168 pages