Whistler's Audain Art Museum unveils monumental collaborative artwork by Indigenous artists James Hart, Xwalacktun, and Levi Nelson
James Hart (7idansuu), Xwalacktun, and Levi Nelson (Svpyan) co-created the outdoor piece
Artists Xwalacktun (far left), James Hart (7idansuu), and Levi Nelson (Svpyan) at the November 12 unveiling ceremony. Photo by Scott Brammer
NOW STANDING OUTSIDE the Audain Art Museum in Whistler is a major new addition to its permanent collection, a monumental artwork created by three revered Indigenous artists.
The Three Watchmen is a cast bronze sculpture by James Hart (7idansuu) that sits atop a concrete base encircled with a carved aluminum band entitled The Great Flood (Ti A7xa7 St’ak’), a collaboration by Xwalacktun and Levi Nelson (Svpyan).
Financed by the Audain Foundation, the two-part public artwork, which was unveiled on November 12, stands on the shared, unceded territory of the Lil’wat (Lil̓wat7úl) Nation and Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) Nation.
Hart’s six-metre-tall sculpture depicts the Three Watchmen, who serve as sentinels watching out for danger and keeping people safe in this world and in the spirit world. Wearing conical hats each with their hands held being bended knees, the supernatural beings are common on Haida crest poles.
The work marks a critical moment in the history of art, according to Hart, a hereditary chief of the Eagle Clan of the Haida Nation who recently received the 2021 Audain Prize for Visual Art.
“The Haida entered the Bronze Age with the work of Bill Reid in 1982,” Hart says in a release. “When I look around at how recently we entered the Bronze Age, we’ve got thousands of years to catch up with all of the other artists out there who have had it in their systems for many years. Bronze represents longevity, and is much more permanent than wood. I’m so excited to be working in bronze.”
The waterjet carved aluminum band created by Xwalacktun of the Squamish Nation and Levi Nelson (Svpyan) of the Lil’wat Nation depicts a canoe in the centre flanked by striking wave-like eyes.
“The Lil’wat are descendants of the Wolf clan according to ancestor Charlie Mack, and the Audain Art Museum sits on a flood plain,” Nelson (Svpyan) says. “On the base, Xwalacktun and I included figures in the canoe to indicate The Great Flood and the Wolf drumming in the moonlight of a starry night, floating above a wave made of the Ancestral Eye. These designs were inspired by Lil’wat and Squamish Nation pictographs. The Three Watchmen and the Ancestral Eye are related to one another through the guidance of our ancestors, keeping a watchful eye over everyone”.
'Xwalacktun adds: “Levi Nelson and I had a good feeling about working together on this project to demonstrate that The Three Watchmen is situated on our shared territory. We came up with a couple of images from Lil’wat and Squamish territories. The Northern-style sculpture is not touching directly on our ground.”
In addition to its permanent collection, Audain Art Museum is currently presenting Riopelle: The Call of Northern Landscapes and Indigenous Cultures, developed by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, to February 21, 2022. (See Stir’s feature article about the exhibition, which includes an interview with Xwalacktun, here.)
For more information, see Audain Art Museum.
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