Carpe Fin

Date2018

Label TextAn ancient Haida oral account—told with embellishments unique to each storyteller—inspired the intricate story depicted here. After years in the city, Carpenter returns to his village to find little fuel or food—the world is out of balance. He locates a canoe, makes a spear, and hunts sea lions, an indigenous food. The weather turns bad, and Carpenter is left on Lord’s Rock. In the two center sheets, Carpenter plunges into the watery realm of the Lord (the blue masked figure with the fin), who chastises him for killing his “women” (the sea lions). These sheets, outlined in red and referencing the carved headdress nearby, frame a moment of transition where Carpenter loses his humanity and life. In the last two sheets, Carpenter rejoins the living, emerging from a sea lion carcass. Again encountering scarcity, he builds vessels that indiscriminately catch sea life and damage the ocean ecosystem. To make up for this failure, he then returns to ancestral and sustainable methods, such as fish weirs carved from cedar. A new understanding prompts a feast attended by the Lord himself, and Carpenter rides away on a whale’s back to Lord’s Rock. Carpe fin means “seize the end.” What might that mean as a framing for this modern tale?

Object number2018.30

ProvenanceCommissioned from the artist by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2018

Photo CreditPhoto: Michael Nicol Yahgulanaas

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: Carpe Fin, November 1, 2019 - November 1, 2020.

Credit LineAncient and Native American Art Acquisition Fund, The MacRae Foundation and Karen Jones

DimensionsEach sheet: 39 3/8 x 78 3/4 in. (100.1 x 200 cm) Overall: 78 x 236 3/8 in. (198.1 x 600.5 cm)

MediumWatercolor and ink on handmade Japanese paper