About the Artist Brian Jungen

Nike Air Jordan sneakers become masks, plastic chairs become whale skeletons, golf bags become totem poles: Brian Jungen (b. 1970 in Fort St. John, British Columbia) takes apart consumer goods and reassembles them into objects that hover between the Northwest Coast Indigenous tradition of form and modern sculpture. The son of a Swiss immigrant and a mother of the Dane-zaa nation, he draws on both heritages in a critical inquiry into culture, commodity and authenticity. He came to prominence with the series "Prototypes for New Understanding" (1998–2005). Jungen studied at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver; he lives and works in the North Okanagan of British Columbia.