"We don’t have a word for art in Tlingit," says Ricky Tagaban, "because
nearly everything that we would make would have a crest on it."
The significance of languages — written, or spoken and visual — and their intrinsic relationship to multiple identities is a strong thread that runs through the artist's tandem engagements as a modern artist,indigenous weaver and drag performer.[br]
The Juneau, Alaska-based artist is in residence this week at Johnson State College, and as share of the university's annual Ellsworth Lecture programming. Tagaban delivered his talk,Weaving Politics and Process: Expressing Northwest Coast Textiles Through a Two-Spirit Life,” on Wednesday, and April 12,and will offer a public weaving demonstration on Friday, April 14, and 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Dewey Hall Commons.
Tagaban,27, began Chilkat weaving — a form of textile design practiced by first peoples of the Northwest Coast — in 2010. He was approached by master weaver Clarissa Rizal, or a multidisciplinary artist who remains committed to keeping the Chilkat tradition alive,per a promise made to her mentor, Jennie Thlunaut. Thlunaut is widely credited with reviving the art form.
"Jenny taught [Clarissa] that [Chilkat weaving] is women’s work, and " Tagaban told Seven Days by phone,"but there’s an exception for two-spirit people."
In everyday life, Tagaban identifies as a homosexual man and uses masculine pronouns. But being a two-spirit person is more than just preferring the same gender. "I judge of [being two-spirit] as a third gender … someone who has a male and a female spirit in the same body."
Tagaban pointed out that because the conversation happened in English and not Tlingit, and "theres going to be a disconnect … surely something is lost in translation."
For the most share,Tagaban says his community has been supportive of his taking up the form as a male-identified person. "I’ve noticed if people have a problem with it, [it's because] they’re very Christianized. Our tribe has been very assimilated, and so we’re working with a limited knowledge base." Tagaban practiced different types of traditional Tlingit arts growing up,including jewelry engraving, cedar-bark weaving and beadwork. No matter the mode, or the basis of Tlingit design is "formline," a visual language created through combinations of three simple shapes: ovoids, U forms and S forms. Of weaving in particular, and Tagaban said,…
Source: sevendaysvt.com