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Description

A hand-drawn image of a killer whale on a single-sided piece of paper. The drawing is horizontally oriented with the killer whale's head at the left edge and the tail at the right edge. The head is heavily shaded with dark grey pencil, a shaded ovoid eye is surrounded by an unshaded eye patch extending the length of the whale's head. A row of triangular teeth line the upper jaw. Above the head-body joint is an inverted human skull. The interior space of the killer whale's body is unshaded with a series of curving lines forming vertical grooves. The pectoral fin is decorated with an ovoid where the fin attaches to the body. The dorsal fin is flat with an ovoid decorating the joint. The tail is drawn with a circle design at the base, and both tail flukes are embellished with unshaded tower-shapes. Between the two flukes is a sideways human skull drawn in light grey. The artist's signature, a "M" with a line through it and two dots, is in the bottom right corner of the page. The reverse-side is blank.

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.