persona grata by Chester Creative

Tanya Harnett persona grata Southern Alberta Art Gallery September 29, 2007 – November 11, 2007 Catalogue Essay: David Garneau Photography: Tanya Harnett Design: Stephenie Chester Printing: University of Lethbridge Printing Services Southern Alberta Art Gallery Staff Marilyn Smith: Director Joan Stebbins: Curator Hannah Wigle: Assistant Curator Sue Black: Manager of Visitor Services Christina Cuthbertson: Public Relations/Volunteer Manager Amber Watt: Education Coordinator Southern Alberta Art Gallery 601 Third Avenue South Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada T1J 0H4 www.saag.ca ISBN 978-1-894699-41-9 Printed in Canada Official distribution by: ABC Art Books Canada Distribution 372 Ste. Catherine O., suite 229 Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3B 1A2 www.abcartbookscanada.com

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Garneau, David, 1962Tanya Harnett : persona grata / David Garneau, author. Curated by: Joan Stebbins. Includes bibliographical references. Catalogue of an exhibition organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alta., on Sept. 29-Nov. 11, 2007. ISBN 978-1-894699-41-9 (bound) 1. Harnett, Tanya, 1970- --Self-portraits--Exhibitions. 2. Photography, Artistic--Exhibitions. I. Southern Alberta Art Gallery II. Title. TR647.H374 2008 779.092 C2008-902551-2

Director’s Acknowledgements

for the viewer. Designer, Stephenie

In her exhibition persona grata at the

to produce a document that aptly extends

Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge artist Tanya Harnett presents 16 largescale, digital self-portraits in which she employs various means to shield herself from the camera’s lens. By covering herself in mud, wrapping herself in the Canadian flag or partially obscuring herself behind a blanket, she at once reveals an aspect of persona and obscures her essential self. Her exploration of identity springs in part from her First Nations heritage and the redefinition of that culture through the influence of westernization. We are indebted to the artist for courageously sharing her personal explorations and in the process, including them in the larger discourse about these issues. In his comprehensive essay, Before the

Chester in this, her first project with us, collaborated with the artist and curator the exhibition beyond its time here. We would like to thank Joan Stebbins, curator of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, for her enthusiastic support of Harnett’s work and for overseeing all aspects of this project. The Southern Alberta Art Gallery is indebted to the Canada Council for the Arts whose commitment to contemporary art production ensures that gallery audiences have meaningful encounters with a range of current practices. The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the City of Lethbridge, our members, donors and volunteers all contribute to the realization of these experiences.

Marilyn Smith Director

Lens, artist and writer David Garneau closely examines this body of Harnett’s work, providing a variety of access points

Foreword Hiding in Plain Sight

it seems notable that so many young female Aboriginal artists have made photographic self-portraiture an important part of

As much time as women are reputed to

their practice. Who can forget Rebecca

spend in front of mirrors, it is the rare one

Belmore’s confrontational images that

of us who would desire to permanently

portray her as an artifact or KC Adams’

capture any of these images. Perhaps be-

provocative self-portraits? Then there are

cause of that, photographic self-portraiture

Lori Blondeau’s outrageous images which

forms a fairly obscure niche within female

mock Playboy glamour and Rosalie Favell’s

artistic practice. As David Garneau notes

carefully constructed photographs where

in his essay, when it is adopted, this genre

she assumes another’s persona. No matter

is usually more notable for its obfuscation

how straight forward or staged female

of the image than its glorification, citing

self-portraiture claims to be, within it a

such contemporary practitioners as Diana

transmutation occurs. The subject, who is

Thornycroft and Cindy Sherman. However,

in fact the object, performs an out-of-body

experience merely by snapping the shutter.

mark-making in favour of other shielding

Photographic self-portraiture is at once a

devices. These include both man-made and

form of introspection and exhibitionism.

natural materials such as cloth, glass, mud,

It differs from self-portrait painting in

steam, and frost.

which, because of the element of time, selfreflection is generally a few steps removed. Photography does not allow this distance. Although controlled by the photographer/ subject, the essential moment gathers more meaning than is embodied in the click of the shutter.

A careful reading of persona grata, the series of sixteen self-portraits in Tanya Harnettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exhibition, suggests autobiography within its rendition of a broad range of thematic scenarios. Identity is examined through images that speak to various issues important to the artist, such as her Aborigi-

Although drawing is Tanya Harnettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s me-

nal heritage, her female gender, and her

dium of choice, she explores photography

position within the trajectory of art history.

in her studio practice and often uses it as

Other images hint at more personal per-

an adjunct to her drawing and painting.

spectives and seem suffused with longing

Previous series of works which combined

and self-reflection. In one image Harnett

photography and drawing revealed her in-

holds a candle up to shed light on her path.

terest in the human figure; often obscured

She seems to beckon us to accompany her

by gestural drawing or painting. Harnettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

on her photographic journey. By doing so,

new work is much more up front and

she invites us to pause and reflect on the

personal in its sole reliance on the camera

diverse cultural and historical aspects that

as instrument. Using the simplest of means,

contribute to every persona while, at the

a Canon Sure Shot 4.0 mega pixel camera,

same time, bringing us to a greater under-

and without any photoshop manipula-

standing of her own.

tion, the artist embarks on a self-reflective journey. Again obscuring the figure, in this

Joan Stebbins

Curator

case, herself; she abandons drawing and

glazing the gaze If digital photographs and artists can be trusted, Tanya Harnett is a woman in her thirties with just past shoulder-length dark brown hair, bangs to her eyebrows, light green-grey eyes and clear skin. Her pose in steam is portrait studio orthodox. She faces the camera squarely. Her right elbow rests on the back of a wooden chair and her hand is a loose fist against

against a black shirt. However, something is off. Harnett does not present her best self to the camera. Her face is impassive, as it is throughout the sixteen mostly lifesized, photo-based prints in persona grata. She looks tired and squints slightly, as if we were difficult to see. We are; she is, too. Between us is a sheet of glass two-thirds fogged by steam. It screens her body and part of her face and encourages us to reconsider the transparency of photographs.

her cheek. Her left hand cradles the right elbow creating a frame of fair, bare flesh

This steamy window is a visual joke on the

ing the image. Harnett does not frame her

picture plane. Picture plane is art jargon

work according to photographic habit—a

for the skin of an image. It also refers to

wide mat cropping a picture to reinforce

the boundary—often figured as a win-

the window effect. Instead, following

dow— between pictorial space and our

contemporary printmaking and drawing

three-dimensional world. On the picture

practices, the thick sheet is not matted

side of this pane, illusionary space appears

but mounted on a panel to highlight the

to recede from the glass (as in perspective).

paper’s tactility. This emphasis on surface

In photography, the transparency of the

echoes her shadowbox spaces. Pressed in

picture plane is rarely troubled—we look

the margin between picture plane and a

through a surface into a scene. steam’s con-

parallel blank wall, her shades perform on

densation makes the invisible convention

a cramped stage as deep as outstretched

visible. Glazing that disrupts the gaze; the

arms or as narrow as a thread. Ten of the

glass calls attention to the fact that images

prints have a sheet of fogged, rippled,

are flat and constructed and reminds the

broken or painted glass or cloth as picture

viewer that a lens and temperament come

planes. This concretizing of the theatrical

between the subject and us.

‘fourth wall’ makes some of the prints read more like textured paintings than photo-

While the large (53.5” x 40”) colour

graphs. In a few, the picture plane, figure

prints in this exhibition have the illusion

and ground conflate into a single dense

of space, Harnett uses both subtle and

but narrow plate.

extravagant means to plane her pictures. The images are printed on BFK Rives,

stretch is a barely-there play of light and

which is thicker, rougher and more porous

shadow over a warm, beige ground. A

than photographic paper. Inks sink into its

thin, taut, translucent fabric materializes

absorptive fibers reducing the intensity of

the picture plane. From the other side of

colour and contrast, softening and flatten-

this epidermal veil, the artist impresses

steam | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2005 |

her profile and hands. The rigid barrier

with desires of her own. I want to see her

softens into a tactile, flexible membrane

more clearly and want her to see more

that seems to permit the intrusion of an

easily. However, by arresting her action,

entity from the flat world into our thick

Harnett announces her satisfaction with a

space by a few centimeters. Intellectually,

partial revelation. Our conflicting desires

we know that this is an inert photograph,

create a difference to which she (as though

but the life-sized, hyper-real, though

she were real) does not yield—and this re-

muted figure and trompe-l’oeil reversal of

sistant difference gives her image the sem-

visual expectations (the object looks to

blance of agency. I check my drive because

come toward rather than away from us)

I know that I am looking at an apparition.

stimulates an uncanny feeling. The sup-

Even so, the picture does generate this ‘as

posedly frozen moment writhes with life

if ’ response and the consciousness that I

just below the skin. The image seems to be

curb my urge to act has me consider my

unpicturing itself, struggling toward being

habitual nature.

a real presence. It is as if Tanya Harnett’s likeness were about to breach the pictorial

The drive to remove interference is

caul, to birth as flesh and blood.

an instinctual need for clarity, to correct, improve and resolve. It is not only

steam also elicits a physical response.

that I want to see more of the subject; I

I want to reach out and wipe away the

want to restore the illusion of transpar-

remaining mist. You can see the haunting

ency. Harnett is having none of this. Her

trace of a hand that earlier brushed the

competing instinct is for self-preservation

top third of the pane. Did Harnett do this

and privacy. Her pictures create anxious

so she could see better, or so others could

relationships. They trigger empathy and

see her better. My urge to mirror and

futility at once. In several works, we see

complete the act implies an empathy with

her in emotional distress and we can-

the image as though it were a real person

not assist. An impenetrable interval of

stretch | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2006 |

time, glass and fiction divide us. We are,

Harnett seems to see the proximity to

subject and viewer, equally in suspense.

others that portraits can provide as an

Harnett reluctantly offers us her image but

illusion. Her traditional pose, nearly blank

obscures it to suggest that we can access

face and lack of context conceals more

some but never all of a person through

than it reveals. She seems to be saying

these thin specters.

that photographic conventions show what we look like at the expense of who we

Making an appearance,

are. Making an appearance, composing

composing ourselves for

person to persona. We conform to a

ourselves for the camera, often sacrifices

the camera, often sacrifices person to persona.

type rather than try to represent our less conventional and elusive selves. In steam, Harnett, the subject, plays along with the conventionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;though her unreadable face suggests a passive resistance. Harnett, the

repair | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5â&#x20AC;&#x153; x 40â&#x20AC;? 2007 |

photographer, gets to be the expressive

mental elements of portraiture? On one

and active one, creatively breaking the

hand, she may be suspicious of the adage

conventions to call attention to them. That

‘the eyes are the windows to the soul’. The

the same person can split into the roles

notion that we can know more by looking

of subject and author in a single image

than by verbal discourse is Romantic and

may suggest that our identity is a play of

prone to self-deception. Viewers do not

personas defined by social position rather

see as much as they project their desires

than essence. However, as a contempla-

and cultural assumptions into the eyes

tion of the collective works reveals, while

of another. Better to draw the blinds. On

the surfaces are disturbed and fractured,

the other hand, she might believe that the

these waters run deep—there is a less

eyes are indeed windows but should open

contingent self, a whole body beneath the

infrequently to protect the privacy of the

reflective surfaces. It is a perverse portrait

inhabitant.

that obscures its subject, but Harnett’s de-conventionalizing intervention tells

The glass picture planes are prefixes that

us more about her self than an ordinary

modify the subjects that follow. They are

portrait could.

hyperbolic metaphors for the conventions that press us into recognizable shapes

steam is the most traditional portrait in

but also the confining distortions we try

persona grata. We see more of Harnett

to overcome. In other works, they are

here than in any other picture. Of the

pre-fixes of another sort, intimations of

sixteen self-portraits, her face is visible,

states prior to permanence, Being before

though interfered with, in six; dramatical-

identity. The figure in stretch is a nascent

ly averted, fragmented or greatly obscured

identity suspended in formation. A desire

in seven; and entirely absent in three.

for a pre-signifying realm hums in a few

Altogether, we see only eight open eyes!

of these pictures: the fetus-like artist is

Why does she resist one of the funda-

variously coated in liquid paint, encased

in dried clay, swathed in a wet cloth or

crying? The glass seems sympathetically

wrapped in a thick comforter. A mature

humid with her tears. Her hand has just

being in repair reaches an arm through a

wiped both. Is she narrowing her eyes to

tear in a cotton screen to fix an adjacent

improve her vision? She might be staring

rip in her cocoon—she has had enough

into her reflection in the glass/lens. Egotis-

of the world and retires to an artificial

tically, we may imagine that she is trying

womb. Perhaps this withdrawal is not to

to see us. Is she inviting us to see her as

non-Being, but simply a retreat from the

she sees herself? Perhaps, but it is not an

scrutiny of the public gaze to be one’s self

open invitation; we have to earn it. She is

by one’s self. From this point of view, from

suspicious, protective and elusive, produc-

the other side of the glass, the pronounced

ing as many veils as lenses. Whatever she

picture planes are different skins protect-

has just been through is a narrative and all

ing a common body. Harnett screens easy

we have is this still glimpse.

receptions of her likeness. She refocuses our attention from her eyes to action

In a companion picture, ripple, Harnett,

traces and other signifiers of identity. She

with her hair pulled back, glasses and

presents and retreats, produces and erases.

bright lipstick, looks professional. She

She dares the viewer to negotiate with her,

does not squint this time. Lenses correct

tease the figures from the camouflage,

her vision. She can see better, but our

piece the fragments from across the exhi-

sight is worse—a thick sheet of vertically

bition and assemble a reasonable likeness.

rippled glass distorts her even more than in steam. It is as if the mask of her profes-

Looking closer at steam, we can see that

sional persona makes her harder to see.

the whites of Harnett’s eyes are a little

Although she is a little more relaxed, her

red and her pupils are constricted. Are

expression remains inscrutable. An impas-

they fatigued from incessant looking or

sive face is open to more readings than an

sore from the bright light? Has she been

expressive one but confirms nothing. Her

Although she is a little more relaxed, her expression remains inscrutable. An impassive face is open to more readings than an expressive one but confirms nothing.

look permits a record but evades capture.

myriad of personas or if there is a prior,

She subjects herself to objectification,

more authentic self beneath the surfaces.

assumes the position, but does not entirely

There is an attempt here at self-formation

submit. By refusing to display signs of

and expression, but the images posit self

pleasure or displeasure, or to pull a face,

as a process of magnetic forces that draw

we are left to fill in the blank.

elements together rather than as a firm being that knows itself incompletely.

persona grata is a complex, introverted

Harnett’s strategy of hiding in plain sight

exhibition. The images are subjective con-

is a means to both publish and protect her

structions more fascinated by their own

public introspection. She seems to want to

processes than in coming to conclusions.

be recognized, ‘read’ by the knowing and

They are curious about how their own

sympathetic, and shielded from the igno-

representations come into being and how

rant, hostile, possessive and critical.

they contradict. They wonder if we are a

ripple | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2007 |

I envy those who can take a gaze like a

double look

compliment, who reflect rather than absorb. A ripe look compels me to speak, to act, to confess truths and lies. Unequal in the

Looking long into the eyes of another can

exchange, naked before the gaze, I break

seize me with anxiety. My heart strangles,

the charm before I am unlocked. I turn

my face heats. I need to break the unbear-

away, or, replace the thick glass, or put on

able circuit, escape the exchange, the silent

the stony face or one of my more expressive masks.

inquiry. The empty air between an other and me becomes charged with electric possibility—invisible frictions, readings and misreadings. I am not at ease with the self these

Autistic before a penetrating gaze, overwhelmed by sensation, I need to slow the current, stop time so I can tease out the

looks produce. I feel oscillating currents of

affects. I prefer stilled eyes. Photographs

shame and desire. Our mutual gaze is a

afford me the luxury of looking at you without being seen—the sensation of an

magnetism that attracts and repels. Your

exchange without the imposition of a rela-

one eye draws me out and within range. The other pushes back. I distrust my ability

tionship. Your photograph is enough you for me, for now. I will make you up as I go

to distinguish my reflected projections from

along, at my own pace. When I absorb this

your open reception or our mixed messages.

one, I will ask for another slender resem-

The sustained doubled look threatens my reserve. My defenses are not as developed as my evasions.

blance. Will you recompose yourself; offer me another glimpse into the all-too-much? I will give you one of me, if you like. We will look good on paper.

blue | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2007 |

all over form

the inside. Her representations reflect a lived experience, a body, but they are also fictions, performances that insulate

persona grata is Latin for “a welcome or

the fragile self while revealing its shifting

acceptable person” (O.E.D.). As the title

public forms. Her practice is a play of

of an exhibition of self-portraits, it has

possibilities rather than a statement of

the force of a claim: ‘I am a welcome and acceptable person.’ Broadcasting a truism, something most of us take as a birthright, seems like a defensive assertion in the face of a counter claim. A persona non-grata

conclusions. On their own, the images are ambiguous and inconclusive, but looking at the whole show reveals patterns and meanings that cause the sensitive viewer to join the artist in her introspection.

is someone without recognition, who signifies negatively or not at all. Why does Tanya Harnett feel the need to assert her acceptability? What aspects of herself does she feel are unwelcome and to whom?

On their own, the images are ambiguous and inconclusive, but looking at the

The main themes of persona grata are Harnett’s negotiation of a place within art discourse and history and her identity under the photographic gaze as a woman and as Aboriginal. The temperamental mode of her investigation and play is introverted and intuitive. Rather than write a general

whole show reveals patterns and meanings that cause the sensitive viewer to join the artist in her introspection.

essay on gender and race, she constructs images that describe her embodiment of, and struggle with, those intersections. She wants us to glimpse these dynamics from

kline | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2007 |

The art world is a complex site of social

the Kline and herself into the composi-

signification. It imagines itself to be an

tion. Some museums allow photography,

ontological hierarchy of curators, critics,

most do not. This shot appears surrepti-

artists, collectors, galleries, museums, art

tious. The artist, with her head held down

magazines, books, etc. It is a semi-auton-

and face concealed by hair, looks guilty.

omous realm (the art world) with its own

Perhaps she feels unworthy in the artist’s

language, history, laws, economies, schools

company and so effaces herself. This could

and other institutions. For the most part,

be a guerrilla attack. Harnett refers to this

it is a meritocracy whose members earn

as her “coup” picture. Counting coup is a

their admittance and status. Entrance is

Plains warrior custom whereby bravery

hard won and status is difficult to maintain.

is accorded to those who touched their en-

Much of persona grata can be read as a

emy with their hand or a coup stick. The

symbolic struggle for signification within

practice rewards non-violent encounters.

the art world by a relatively new member,

Counting coup also refers to telling tales

but also as a disruption and renegotiation

of bravery. In kline, Harnett is both ‘steal-

of that field to include more folks like her.

ing’ his picture and putting her own in the museum next to his. Doubling the play

In the two works whose titles explicitly

further, Kline is now a minor player in

shout-out to famous (white, male) artists,

Harnett’s exhibition.

all over andre and kline, Harnett is nearly

invisible, persona non-grata. We see her

In all over andre, Harnett aims the camera

blurred leg in the first and a sliver of

at her feet as she walks on a Carl Andre

her head and shoulder in the second. In

steel plate, checkerboard floor sculpture.

kline, she leans into the frame from the

The act is iconoclastic, a mild provoca-

left. Behind her is portion of a real Franz

tion. The title plays on the verbal habit

Kline painting, Chief. She must have held

of conflating artists and their works—to

the camera at arms length to get part of

walk on Andre’s sculpture is to walk on an

Every artist is in relation to prior artists. We are all latecomers. We cannot reject our artistic fathers and mothers without first recognizing them and their achievements and our initial dependence on them. ‘Andre.’ It also plays on the cliché phrase

these ghosts but, ironically, cannot help

about relationships: like an ex-lover, she is

but call them into being through her anti-

‘all over Andre’. However, being ‘all over’

homage before she can exorcize them.

someone can mean both no longer interested in them or the opposite; it refers to

Why is Tanya Harnett ‘all over Andre’?

a person whose attentions are annoyingly

Why evoke this minor figure? Is she

persistent: ‘she’s all over him’ (O.E.D).

signaling a shift from her Formalist art school training? Has Feminism awakened

Every artist exists in relation to prior

her to the aggressive masculinity in Mini-

artists. We are all latecomers. We cannot

malist art (Chave)? Did the ‘romance’ die

reject our artistic fathers and mothers

when she learned that Andre was charged

without first recognizing them and their

(but not convicted) of pushing his wife,

achievements and our initial dependence

the artist Ana Mendieta, out their apart-

on them. If we do move on, it is only by

ment window and to her death in 1985?

pushing off against these prior sources. In this sense, we are always in relation to our

Harnett, her head and shoulders coated

predecessors, never really over them. In all

in light grey clay, stands in three-quarter

over andre and kline, Harnett may reject

profile against a similarly covered wall.

The fine slip cracks on both to reveal

While the clay skin seems natural, white

warm, fleshy dermis. clay recalls Ana

feels like an action perpetrated on her. If

Mendieta’s performances where she

the photograph had recorded her surprise,

smeared herself with mud and was photo-

it might seem a joke. Her stoic immobility

graphed practically merging with nature.

is an attempt to maintain dignity in the face

The images suggest both emergent life

of a humiliating assault.

and unavoidable death—from clay back to clay—our continuity with nature. That

She assumes a nearly identical pose in

Harnett walks all over Andre in one scene

broken glass. Her eyes are shut, again. The

and literally inhabits Mendieta’s sloughed

intervening glass is splattered with black

skin in another indicates a clear rejection

paint. The reference is to Jackson Pollock’s

of one and identification with the other.

drips, especially to Hans Namuth’s film of him painting on a sheet of glass between

Harnett earned her Master of Fine Art at

himself and the camera. However, in

the University of Alberta, a school well

Harnett’s version, it is as though the force

known for Formalist predilections. The

of the slashes has shattered the glass. Her

legacy of this education lingers in the

defense is breached. The broken glass may

exhibition’s uniform modules: the row of

signify getting ‘over’ this tradition while

sixteen identical white frames; the nearly

still revealing the trace, the damage. If

flat compositions and the non-objective

these works are Harnett’s symbolic means

paint drips in several prints. The legacy is

of pulling herself out from under the

not benign. white is a subtly disturbing pic-

influence of patriarchal Modernism, this

ture. Harnett strikes another portrait studio

is a particularly graphic indictment. The

pose. This time it is a three-quarter profile,

white liquid poured over her head in white

fist on the chin loosely in the manner of

is inextricably related to Pollock (and his

Rodin’s Thinker. White paint streaks the

commentator’s) frequent reference to his

intercessional glass pane and pours over

ejaculatory paint application.

her head leaving only a few areas of flesh.

all over andre | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2006 |

an I full

as an artifact of her history. Unlike many artists working in this mode, Harnett does

Tanya Harnett is an attractive woman. You would only know this, however, from the

the parts she plays every day. She wears ordinary, casual clothes (usually a plain

evidence of two or three prints. We see

black or white short-sleeved shirt). She

so little of her face and almost nothing

does not stage elaborate masquerades of

of her body. This is surprising as many

the absent postmodern self.

(Non-Aboriginal) contemporary female artists who take self-authored photographs often use nakedness as a means to reclaim their bodies (Diana Thorneycroft and Ana Mendieta). Artists such as Leesa Streifler and Cindy Sherman also make

If steam, ripple and broken glass were not in the exhibition, it would be difficult to determine the artist’s gender. Not only do most of the prints offer only fragments of Harnett’s face and very little of her

anti-aesthetic, even monstrous, ver-

body, what we do see is ambiguous. The

sions of their bodies as an antidote to the

black or white shirts are unisex. Typi-

aestheticizing and eroticizing male gaze (Mulvey). Harnett is aligned to these projects, partially, but rather than ironically

cal cultural signifiers of femininity, like lipstick, are only evident in a few pictures. Her long hair is often pulled back and can

trying on stereotypes in order to present and reject them, or diffuse herself through a myriad of exaggerated gender identity

be mistaken for a butch cut. In broken glass, her hair looks cropped. A masculine hand with closely trimmed nails holds

options, she seems to be protecting a primary self, a recurring body behind the images. The persistence of her body/self is a core identity that survives experience. She is herself despite what happens or has happened to her. She does not exist only

not dress up to play a part different from

up a sheet of glass in the foreground obscuring a face that has near side-burns and shadows that resemble facial hair. [Knowing that she is First Nations makes a conventional gendered reading of long

clay | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2006 |

hair and little facial hair unreliable.] While

to create more complex representations of

she does not erase gender specificity from

themselves and other women. Harnett’s

the exhibition, she does downplay it. She

solution is to invest some images with

is not interested in gender as a play of

an ambiguous gender; to show very little

facades but as an aspect that comes with

skin; to focus the camera exclusively above

her body, which, occasionally, might be

the ribcage and mostly above the armpits.

overcome. That is, at times she seems to be

While she does not completely desexual-

asking, ‘apart from, or as well as gender,

ize herself, she does not go out of her way

who am I, what do you see?’

to cloak herself in sexual signifiers or uncloak herself to garner sexual attention.

The exhibition is an answer to a problem of signification, ‘how do I represent myself

At first glance, bed is a sexy picture. We

without becoming sexually objectified?’

find Harnett lying in bed—but we do

‘How do I say what I want to say without

not see much of her. Three quarters of

my gender and attractiveness getting it

the composition consists of a matching

the way?’ Men sexualize women. When

comforter and pillow set decorated with a

a woman is rendered into an image, and

spray of flowers on an off-white ground.

cannot challenge the masculine gaze,

The cover is pulled back diagonally to re-

she seems a willing recipient. Given this,

veal a little more than half of the artist’s in-

a grotesque guise is an apt response.

verted face, a little of her shoulder and left

However, it seems a high price to pay.

hand which covers her forehead and right

Are all non-hideous images of women

eye. Her left eye looks out at the viewer/

subject to sexual projection or evaluation?

lens. The lighting is even but muted; per-

I suppose that some men’s imaginations

haps daylight diffused by curtains. Harnett

will be transfixed by a sexualizing force

may be shielding her eyes from the light

longer and more exclusively than others,

but she may be shielding herself from our

but that is no reason for women not to try

looking. I feel embarrassed. Upside down,

bed | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2005 |

she seems especially vulnerable. Have I

and sex with filth and evil and this was

interrupted her sleep? What am I doing

amplified when the churches set out to

hovering over her bed?

‘correct’ aboriginal people. Lori Blondeau teases this prohibition with her Cosmo

Looking closer we can see that, as in

Squaw photographs. In Lonely Surfer

steam, her eye looks sore, puffy, red.

Squaw, her voluptuous body is squeezed

When I asked her about this picture, she

into a fur bikini. She holds a huge pink

explained that she was sick but felt the

surfboard while standing in the snow. The

she had to get some work done for the

photograph is a multi-layered joke on the

show—she could not afford to take a day

difficulty women of the North have in re-

off. Originally, the print hung right side

alizing the ideal of the fashion magazine’s

up, but she did not like the “come hither

Southern beach babe model. It also makes

look” (Harnett). Upside down, it cre-

fun of the image of the authentic (imagi-

ates a feeling of vertigo and illness. This

nary) Indian who, if she is going to wear a

story—or a close examination—reverses

bathing suit at all, it had better be fur! The

the initial expectation. It changes from a

picture also dares to eroticize an Aborigi-

boudoir photograph, to a sick-bed picture.

nal body. Like the attempt to defang the

The twist blunts an erotic gaze.

once descriptive, now derogatory, ‘squaw’, sexuality and Aboriginality is a touchy

When I observed that many contempo-

issue in the Aboriginal community. The

rary female artists took their clothes off

pain of racism and sexual exploitation is

for the camera, she shot back, “not an

not yet a memory.

Indian girl!” Many Aboriginal women are physically modest. Is this an indigenous cultural trait or a more recent legacy of (religious) residential schools? Christianity of colonial vintage paired bodies

broken glass | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2005 |

cipher In persona grata’s didactic panel, Tanya Harnett is identified as a member of the “Assiniboine tribe and the Carry-the-Kettle First Nation.” Her race is the primary subject of that text. She is further legitimized as a ‘real Indian’ by the reference to her great-grand father, Dan Kennedy (Ochankugahe/Path Maker) who wrote Recollections of an Assiniboine Chief. Hints are also made of her spirituality. The information is true, and Harnett’s Aboriginality is key to understanding these prints, but, ironically, these specific facts are not evident in the works of art. This is not a typical Indian art exhibition. Aboriginality is over-determined in the text because it is so indeterminate in the images. To many, Harnett may not look Aboriginal. She could ‘pass’ for White and assume the privileges that go with that identity. The primary benefit of which is seeming not to have a race—not thinking about your racial identity and relational meaning much of the time.

To be Aboriginal, especially to be a First

Nations people, she is ‘mixed-blood’. [It is

Nations professor (as Harnett is), means

embarrassing to write about such things,

being responsible not only for the domi-

but it is a distinct issue in this work and

nant canons, histories and methods but

the lives of Aboriginal people.]

also for as many Aboriginal meanings, relations and responsibilities as you can

For many, Aboriginality is a question, not

manage.

an answer. It covers a range of identities: full-bloods, mixed-bloods, status,

Harnett may not look Aboriginal to

non-status, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Bill

people who compare her picture to faces

C31, reserve, urban, all the various bands,

on the far end of the White/Indian binary.

locals, nations, cultures, etc. None of which

In that scheme, ‘being’ and ‘authentic’ are

(formally at least) are based on appear-

only recognized as extreme difference

ance but on lineage, self-identification and

from a White norm. The dominant culture

acceptance by communities. ‘Passing’ is

has difficulty picturing ‘Indianness’ as

unthinkable to some, has been a question

anything but racially ‘pure.’ Government

of survival to others and not an option to

policies still legislate blood-quantum iden-

many more. The absence of overt signifiers

tity. To others, especially Aboriginal oth-

of Aboriginality in Harnett’s prints is not an

ers, her face is traced with signs of kinship.

effort to ‘pass’. She is a proud Assiniboine

I am Métis and often find myself scanning

woman who embraces her cultural identity.

apparently ‘White’ faces for traces of Ab-

However, she wants to trouble the con-

originality. In the two semi-clear images of

ventional expectations of that identity. She

Harnett, I see something familiar/familial

clears the underbrush to broaden the view.

in her high, broad cheekbones, strong jaw and something subtle around the eyes.

Like her gender, Harnett excludes overt

Her green eyes and brown hair suggest

signifiers of her First Nations heritage.

European heritage, too. Like most First

There are no feathers, ‘Indian’ jewelry,

regalia, buffalo, eagles, etc. This eviction

Lucy Lippard observes that many

seems to ask, ‘aside from these outward

contemporary Aboriginal women artists

shows, what does Nativeness look like?’

address their self-portraits to other

She appears to be asking herself ‘how do

Aboriginal women. They are “coded

I represent what Aboriginality feels like

meanings for those who are familiar with

without using the stereotyped markers of

the subject” (Lippard 142). Similarly, bell

Indianness?’ This is a radical purge. She

hooks explains that African American

refuses to act ‘like an Indian,’ It would have

artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings are

been so much easier to give people what

“a barrier, challenging the Eurocentric

they want, what they are familiar with,

gaze that commodifies, appropriates, and

to confirm their settled views. Instead,

celebrates.” There is “a wall between him

Harnett clears the ground. She knows who

and [the established art world]. Like a

she is and that it is more than meets the

secret chamber that can be opened and

eye. She creates a little, temporary space

entered only by those who can decipher

that is out from under the over-determined

hidden codes, Basquiat’s painting

site, ‘Indian’—a place for symbolic

challenges folks who think that merely

field-testing. She takes ordinary items

by looking they can ‘see’ ” (hooks 36).

and infuses them with subtle Aboriginal

Harnett eliminates conventional signifiers

meanings, clever recodings that escape

of Aboriginality to cut down on the visual

the superficial and clichéd. These ciphers

noise, the burden of associations that have

protect her meanings from the insensitive

accumulated onto Aboriginal bodies. In

and meet the empathetic and knowing

their place, she conjures new metaphors

halfway. A cipher is not just a code but the

and the possibility of new identities.

key to a code. Interestingly, the word also refers to an unimportant person (a persona

I began this essay with an examination

non grata).

of Harnett’s play on art history and

flag | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2006 |

representations of gender. Following her

dehumanize other people, which made

lead, I wanted to bracket Aboriginality

robbing them of their land and resources

for the moment to recognize her other

seem reasonable. On the other hand,

meanings and interventions and,

perhaps she is saying that reason is a sleep,

therefore, recognize that there is more to

that rationalism is responsible for systemic

this work, and her, than race. Now that

racism: reason over (com)passion.

this is established, a consideration of her First Nations messages is inevitable.

On the other hand,

In sleep of reason the artist lays her head

perhaps she is saying that

on a white table. Substituting the flying

reason is a sleep, that

nightmare figures from Goya’s etching, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, are the white on white words, ‘white’ and ‘lies.’

rationalism is responsible

This is the most overt comment on racism

for systemic racism: reason

in the exhibition. A ‘white lie’ is an un-

over (com)passion.

truth told for an apparent good reason. By racializing ‘white,’ Harnett hints that white lies are often employed paternalistically for ‘our own good,’ but it is really a means of concealing power by keeping someone

herself with a wet Canadian flag. The flag bisects her face into a red and a white half. It is at once a personal acknowledgement of

‘in the dark.’ The title is more subtle. On one hand, Harnett may be suggesting that the irony of colonialism is that it required Europeans at the height of their Enlightenment to put reason to sleep. Greed anesthetized reason, permitting Europeans to

In flag Harnett seems to be smothering

her ‘mixed blood’ but also the absurdity of being able to separate one aspect of her cultural/racial self from the other. Mixed-race people cannot afford to see the world in binaries. The dampness barely allows us to see her face beneath the politically divided

sleep of reason | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2007 |

layer. flag also suggests that Canada’s two

In this light, the paint poured over her

founding nations are not the French and

head in white, and the beige clay coat-

English but the ‘White’ and ‘Red’ peoples.

ing her flesh in clay, is not just about art materials and art historical quotes and

Harnett’s use of colour is formally attrac-

tropes, it is about the attempt to whiten

tive, but it is not until you bring the lens

the ‘coloured,’ about beiging, and about

of culture and ethnicity to bear on the im-

resisting these efforts. In many contexts,

ages that her colours take on a racial hue.

Harnett could pass for White. She could

glass, for example, is impenetrable without

also over-compensate and deck herself in

a discourse on colour. The obscured head

difference through Aboriginal significa-

of an indeterminately gendered person

tion. As a professor and exhibiting artist,

holds up a sheet of glass. The head is in

she is a public intellectual. How she com-

the bottom third of the composition. To

poses and comports herself sends identity

the right, the light is an intense red—un-

signals to Aboriginal people.

usual in this collection of mostly subdued colours. To the left the light is grey-brown

Another subtle Aboriginal signifier in

green with some faint reflected reds. The

these works is the use of vapour. It appears

head and hand are lit in reds. Above, the

as thick mist in candle and fog on a sheet

large, blank wall features a warm range of

of glass in steam. The translucent coating

skin tones from very light reds and yel-

over the glass in blue might be also con-

low to brown and beige. The portrayal of

densation. Steam is not a neutral signifier

race as colour is subtle. It reminds us that

in First Nations Plains culture. Steam is

colour is an effect of light; that it is not

associated with the sweat lodge, the womb

an essential but a conditional property of

where the four elements mix: fire, stones,

things; and that it has a spectrum without

water and air. The Sweat is a cleansing

firm divisions.

ceremony, a ritualized site of teaching and memory, a means of reconnecting to the

white | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2005 |

Steam is associated with the sweat lodge, the womb where the four elements mix: fire, stones, water and air.

earth, spirit, tradition and each other. The

modern urban realm and collective

lodge is a place of teaching, protocol, dark,

contemporary, dominant culture con-

discomfort and the release of physical and

sciousness and the candle could represent

psychic toxins. Harnett’s prints resonate

traditional consciousness. The smaller is

with this tradition. Harnett’s sweat cham-

no match for the larger, but the woman

bers allude to the sacred, but they are not

appears determined to use the seemingly

traditionally sacred places. They are domes-

lesser (natural) power to find her way

ticated echoes, make-do spaces between

into a space the other light cannot reach.

tradition and contemporary realities.

This is perhaps the only work here with a strong spiritual component. Harnett’s

In candle, the artist, barely seen through

spirituality is signified covertly in the

a thick fog, is dressed in a white shirt. She

exhibition (steam, sacred colours, images

leans forward and looks out of the room

of stoic meditation). She avoids clichés

and into our space. She holds a candle but

because too often ‘Indians’ are associated

it does not have enough power to light

and contained by them. Similarly, aside

her way. Over her left shoulder is a strong,

from the flower print on the bedspread

artificial light.

in bed, there are no signs of nature— another ‘quality’ stereotypically attached

The electric light might represent the

to ‘Indians’.

righting with light ‘Aboriginal artist’ comes with numerous associations: Woodlands school painting, Haida carving, Inuit sculpture and prints, Métis beading, etc., but ‘Aboriginal photographer’ is not yet among them. This gap provides a little breathing room for artists to continue the decolonizing project (Harlan 114, Lippard 135). Many artists have seized on photography as a means of getting out from under the weight of the history of negative visualization. The medium is relatively cheap, easy to learn, fast and readily distributed. In the hands of skilled, empathetic and visually intelligent artists, Aboriginalproduced images of Aboriginal people can go toe-to-toe with the negative, inaccurate or stereotypical images that the dominant culture has produced. These new pictures are so obviously different from the conventional (anthropological, touristic, etc.) representations that they come as a surprise not easily exhausted by recognition (Harlan 123). They function convincingly as competing truths.

Because Tanya Harnett identifies as Assiniboine, she is not given the privilege (at this cultural moment) of being (only) herself. Her self-portraits represent her as individual-and-Aboriginal. As such, they engage the whole history of the representational objectification of Aboriginal people by lenses wielded by non-Aboriginal documentarians. Those photographs recorded, classified and distributed types to an eager public. Slow exposures fixed the notion of the stoic noble savage in the European and North American imagination. Harnett takes the tools of the colonizer and turns the gaze on herself. I have characterized her approach as introverted. Lippard describes similar efforts as a “selfinflicted invasion of privacy” (Lippard 136). It is an unnatural and uncomfortable trope, but a necessity. Aboriginal photographic self-portraiture is a dramatic wresting away of the primary tool of Aboriginal representation from the hands of the former colonizer, now neighbour. In the hands of an artist, it is a political act, a statement not only saying that ‘I exist,’ but that ‘I am an agent in the

construction of my identity.’ Contempo-

pillows, like Harnett’s bed, invite us into

rary Aboriginal artists want to get past the

a most intimate space, a space beyond

clichés: the ‘noble savage,’ disappearing

the public spectacle, where identity rests.

Indian, squaw, drunk, Indian princess,

She asks us to consider the personhood

warrior, and Aboriginal “divorced from

behind the contested surface. Harnett’s

contemporary society” (Skoda 50). They

pictorial space, as we have seen, is an

mock these stereotypes (Lori Blondeau,

interstitial gap, a contingent, conceptual

Zig Jackson, Robert Houle), ridicule them

margin between the picture plane and a

(KC Adams), or displace them (Shelley

blank wall; an interior space unoccupied

Niro). Rosalie Favell and Shelley Niro

by anyone else, it is hers alone.

use photography to retroactively insert themselves into the history of dominant

persona grata is a deep and generous in-

art and culture. Each is looking for or

vestigation of subjectivity in the hopes

constructing a (post-colonial) space to be

of reaching an inter-subjective space. Be-

themselves, to be persona grata on their

hind the sixteen veils is one body that

own terms, but each seems to feel the need

we re(as)semble. In these sixteen cham-

to clear the brush first. Rebecca Belmore’s

bers we hear echoes of our selves.

self-portrait photographs printed on

David Garneau Regina, 2007

glass | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2007 |

endnotes Chave, Anna. “Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power.” Arts Magazine. #64, January, 1990. Harlan, Theresa. “As in Her Vision: Native American Women Photographers.” Reframings: New Feminist Photographers. Diane Neumaier, ed. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995. Harnett. From various conversations with the artist. 2007. hooks, bell. “Re-membering Basquiat” (1993). Outlaw Cultures: Resisting Representations. New York: Routledge, 1994. Lippard, Lucy R. “Independent Identities.” Native American Art in the Twentieth Century. W. Jackson Rushing III. New York: Routledge, 1999. Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema” (1975). Visual and Other Pleasures (Theories of Representation and Difference). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. Skoda, Jennifer. “Image and Self In Contemporary Native American Photoart: An Exhibition at the Hood Museum of Art.” American Indian Art Magazine. Vol. 21, no. 2 Spring 1996, 48-57.

[I am grateful for the assistance of Judy Anderson who introduced me to some of the above-cited works.] D.G.

camera | Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 53.5“ x 40” 2007 |

Tanya Harnett persona grata

list of works

broken glass

p33

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2005

repair

p15

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2005

stretch

p12

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2005

steam

p11

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2005

all over andre

p27

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2006

bed

p31

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2006

clay

p29

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2006

kline

p22

Digital Print on BFK Rives paper 40” x 53.5 “ 2006

blue

p20