Brian Jungen: Printing Two Perspectives | Art21 "Exclusive"

[Brian Jungen: Printing Two Perspectives]

"City police say they will investigate claims"

"that they used excessive force in arresting
a group of Native demonstrators Sunday"

"if a formal complaint is received."

"Amid charges of police violence
and halting the protest march, 11..."

This court case with these young Native folks

who had been charged with loitering and stuff,

there's an image of them,

and they're all, like, having a good time,

and they all look pretty cool.

And, on the other side, you have this
advertisement for all these white people--

who are models--

and they're having a little, kind of,
soccer thing.

Features about this kind of situation
of Native folks--

usually, the kind of down-and-out,

the slum conditions of living and stuff--

and then, on the other side,
you have almost the complete opposite.

"Why girls leave home: To get married!"

Like this one, for instance,

is about these young Native gals
learning how to live in the city--

and learning how to save money and
cook for a family--

and really sexist, stereotypical things,

and the other side is an ad for a cooked ham!

[LAUGHS]

So I just took pictures of them with my phone.

I decided to work on this print edition
with them.

[JUNGEN] There's one with a ham
on the other side.

Did I give you that one?

[MAN] No.

[JUNGEN] Okay.

Huh.

[MAN] Now you're a printmaker.

[BOTH LAUGH]

[JUNGEN] I'll put you out of work.

It was interesting seeing the media's portrayal
of the local Native population.

It was always about inequality,

but it wasn't really from the
Native person's perspective.

In the Seventies, things kind of changed,

and they kind of started to report
more positive things.

I was doing research for this public art project
in Calgary

and I went to the museum and I asked them
if they could

gather history of the local
First Nations community.

And they had a clippings file.

Those broad sheet newspapers were huge!

It was like they were folding a bedsheet,
but it was a newspaper!

[LAUGHS]

How hard would it be to print
on the other side of the paper?

Pretty hard?

[MAN] No, we just have to figure out how.

[BOTH LAUGH]

These are the stories I would have
read as a kid.

They would've made me feel really bad
about being Native.

And I think that's the case with
a lot of folks.

In mass media, you're always portrayed
in either

a sympathetic or a very negative way.

[JUNGEN] Wow!

[WOMAN] That's great!

Look at that!

[JUNGEN] So that's without the printing?

[MAN] That's just the background, yeah.

Because we separated that out.

Actually, it's a shadow.

[JUNGEN] The shadow!
[LAUGHS]

[MAN] The folds and everything.

[JUNGEN] Oh, okay.

Looks great!

[MAN] Looks cool, eh?

[JUNGEN] Yeah.

[MAN] I like it floating in the
middle of nowhere.

We just have to hit it with a rag
to clean the edges off.

[JUNGEN] Yeah.

[MAN] And even the text lines up with
the crease.

[JUNGEN] Yeah.

Can I handle it?

[MAN] Yeah, it's yours!

[JUNGEN LAUGHS]

[JUNGEN] In the Arctic,
there's a lot of Inuit artists

who've done a lot of beautiful printmaking.

And I got interested in printmaking
largely out of that Inuit art tradition.

One thing I always liked about the imagery
that you see

in the cultures on the coast

is this bilateral symmetry--

trying to portray both sides of something
on a flat surface.

There's something that you would have a physical
relationship to.

Like, you wouldn't just frame
these newspaper clippings

and stick it on the wall.

That's not how it works.

It's something that you actually
have to turn over.