ID Number

Title

Item Name

Culture

Date Made

Maker

Place Made

Date Owned

Owner

Acquisition Date

Source

Source

Source

Measurements

Item Classes

Condition

Accession Number

Description

A pencil drawing on an off-white bookmark. The bookmark and the drawing are vertically oriented. The front-side of the bookmark is a hand-drawn image of an abstract human-whale(?) being. The being has a human-like face with a hominid nose and mouth; the eye is exaggerated and is enclosed by a large oval. The teeth are small and triangular. A whale-like dorsal fin, decorated with three arches and a rectangle with an elongated diamond and oval, extends from the head of the being. Beneath the head are two fin-like arms; the one on the right is curved upwards towards the dorsal fin, and the left one is drawn parallel to the bottom edge of the bookmark. The reverse-side of the bookmark is machine-printed in brown ink. An elaborate border is printed along all four edges of the page. Within an off-white rectangular text box, the bookstore's name, "The Manuscript," and information are printed in brown ink. Below, a white image of a desk with an open book and globe is printed over a brown background. At the very bottom, a quote by Leigh Hunt is printed in white ink.

History Of Use

These 62 small works (3223/1-62) comprise a collection of drawings in pencil, ink, pencil crayon, and felt pen made by the artist between the years 1968 and 2015. During that period the artist has identified himself by the following names: Ron Hamilton; Hupquatchew; Ki-ke-in; Kwayatsapalth; Chuuchkamalthnii; and Haa’yuups. The drawings are, for the most part, applied to the backs of bookmarks acquired from a range of bookshops; some are applied to other pieces of paper or cutouts from his earlier silkscreen prints. Many of the images represent killer whales, often in conjunction with accoutrements and symbols of Nuu-chah-nulth whaling. The juxtaposition of bookmark and representation of Nuu-chah-nulth himwits’a, or narrative, is a deliberate and meaningful placement of two distinct knowledge systems in relationship with one another. Ephemeral drawings like these were not created for the market; the artist has long made them for himself and sometimes as gifts for relatives and friends; they are a way of sharing his knowledge and experience about Nuu-chah-nulth ways of knowing, thinking about, and being in this world; they are expressive of what he calls kiitskiitsa: marks made with intention.