Analysis of a Work of Art

Section 1:

The art work I decided to describe is a “Crest Helmet”. I have chosen this work of art because, I believe it perfectly represents the fifth lecture we had on “Representation”. Throughout this lecture we talked a lot about symbolism and how the natives perceived and represented different animals.

Headpieces such as this “Crest Helmet” would have been worn during ritual ceremonies, in communities along America’s Northwest Coast. If we carefully observe the helmet we can see the combinations of several animal forms; a lot of native clans used animals to characterise their tribes; meaning natives did not represent animals for their utility but rather for what they represented and their value to the clan . If we further analyze the helmet, we can notice that a fish makes up the whole body; this fish, the sculpin, was commonly found in the waters of the North Pacific and Arctic . Moreover, if we carefully look at the tail of the fish, we can notice that it took the shape of a hawk’s head; one of the reason is because the sculpin is a crest animal of the Eagle moiety of the Haida Nation . Many believed that the sculpin is an appropriate choice as a crest animal because it suggests an important display of power to a highly status-conscious people . Furthermore, we can notice a raven on top of the fish; ravens were very important to the Haida clan because they believed that they were the ones who brought light to the world, and created the land and the seas .

Section 2:

The work of art I decided to compare to the “Crest Helmet”, is “Bear Mother Totem Pole”, by Ron Russ. I have chosen this sculpture because we can see a similar idea being portrayed, the representation of animals beyond their utility, but form a different perspective.

As we saw earlier, the helmet represented several animals that were important to different tribes in the North Pacific and Arctic such as the sculpin and the raven. Now, I would like to introduce the bear. This animal is a symbol for power, courage, physical strength and leadership . Unlike the “Crest Helmet”, this “Totem” tells the story of a woman who was picking berries and stepped in bear dung and curses the bear. Legend has it that that the bear transformed himself into a handsome man and took her to a large forest village, where he reveals himself to be a bear. The women married the man and had two sons together, which in turn took their dad’s ability of metamorphosing into bears themselves. The reason why I chose to compare these two works of art is because they represent the importance animals had for numerous clans. Moreover, we can slightly connect the Bear with the Raven; legend has it that ten thousand years ago, the world was covered by frozen glaciers and that the Raven descended from the heavens and created “The Green” however he was not fully satisfied with