PERSONA GRATA | TANYA HARNETT
09.29.2007 | 11.11.2007
Lethbridge artist Tanya Harnett’s new series of photographic works explore her multi-faceted persona. Through self-portraiture the artist is able to examine the many and diverse layers of her being. A member of the Assiniboine tribe and Carry-the-Kettle first nation, Harnett reflects on her heritage and how it has been culturally defined and redefined within the parameters of a westernized education. Large-scale colour photographs reveal the complexities of a history which is subtly but relentlessly pursued through the lens of the camera. The artist’s role-playing suggests her ambivalence in being her own subject in her search for a stable identity. The poignant images of her photographic journey are marked by imanihan, an Assiniboian word that acknowledges the sense of spirit.
While growing up in Saskatchewan, Harnett heard many stories from her family based on both firsthand experience and native mythology. Her great grandfather Dan Kennedy (Ochankugahe/Path Maker) wrote of his life in Recollections of an Assiniboine Chief and through his writing she learned some of the history of her culture. She has carried these things with her and we can observe their threads among the strands of her practice.
Harnett earned an MFA in Drawing from the University of Alberta. In the course of her studio work she explored photography and used it as an adjunct to her drawing and painting. Previous series of works which combine photography and drawing reveal her interest in the human figure; which is very often obscured by gestural drawing or painting. The new work is much more personal in its exploration of self-portraiture, here the artist again obscures the figure, in this case, herself. She abandons drawing and mark-making in favour of other shielding devices including both man-made and natural materials such as cloth, mud, steam, and frost. In one photograph, we observe her protectively wrapped in a Canadian flag; but looking lost and vulnerable, in another, her head and torso are obscured by mud, lending the image a primitive aura in the style of the National Geographic.
Harnett comments: The works in Persona Grata look to elements that are important in my life, my aboriginal heritage, my artistic practice and influences, but more importantly to those intangibles that speak of the fragility of our existence. The production of this work coincided with personal events that made the time of self-reflection even more intense.
For the viewer, Tanya Harnett’s self-portraits may have different points of entry. Individually, the works speak of broader narratives within our society and in doing so, emphasize those very inconsistencies through which we define our individuality.
