How does belonging to an area of land become part of one’s identity? How is that identity affected when changes to the land occur? How do these changes create different public perceptions of an area or ones identity? These are questions I will be exploring throughout this written project. By exploring photographic works by Larry Towell, whose works present landlessness in war torn countries in relation to loss of identity, as well as works by James Luna focusing on how identity is perceived within the public eye, and how that perception causes an individual to change pieces of their identity. I will be discussing these artists and their works in relation to my current practice and recent photographic works which focus on events that have occurred within my community, the Kinder Morgan protests on Burnaby Mountain, the current conflict on the same mountain on trail use between hikers and mountain bikers, the construction of the Evergreen Skytrain, the sinkholes that occurred as a result of that project, as well as the construction of heritage homes into “monster homes,” and how these events affect my sense of belonging to a community and my identity.
I think it is important to first consider what belonging to land means, rather than land belonging to a single person or group of people. I think feeling a sense of belonging to an area is something formed uniquely for each person. Some may consider their place of belonging as their home or their community they currently reside in, for those who have moved it may be their homeland or where they originated from, and for others it may include family history, where their origins lay. Belonging to land is reliant upon connections to an area, whereas land belonging to people or a single person implies ownership over an area that no one else can possess. The following artists explore land belonging to people and how these people feel about these areas.
Larry Towell is a Canadian born photographer, writer, poet and folk musician from rural Ontario. His photographic practice focuses on identity and the idea of landlessness in countries or areas where conflict occur, Towell describes his practice as the following, “If there is one theme that connects all my work, I think it’s that of landlessness; how land makes people into who they are and what happens to them when they lose it and thus lose their identities.” One of Towell’s works exploring this concept is close to Towell’s heart, a photographic work he titles, “The World from My Front Porch.” Within this work he explores the small farming community in rural Ontario he grew up in, a place hat he felt “made him who he was,” he tells the story of his life in his hometown as his artist statement.
-“When I was an adolescent, my father once scolded me for wanting to drive to Florida with a friend. It was too far from home, and I would be corrupted by the distance, I was 16. I’d been brought up in a small farming community and had barely been 100 miles from my home. Neither had he, at least not more than once or twice. He hated travel. The world was his front porch and it made him who he was.” -Larry Towell
It is clear that Towell’s connection to his homeland is a huge part of his identity, rural Ontario became the only area he knew quite well, it was his community, his home, obviously becoming a big part of his life and practice, however it is also clear to me that Towell had a desire to explore the world. He accomplishes this in his works from 2008-2010 traveling to war torn countries such as the Gaza strip, Sal Salvador, Afghanistan, and not only witnessed but also photographed the September 11 2001 attacks in New York City. In these works Towell photographs, talks to, and forms relationships with citizens whose homes and lives have been uprooted by conflict. He attempts to understand the sense of exile, physical loss, recuperation, and most importantly the loss of identity because of land loss, these citizens experience.
James Luna is a Native American, Pooyukitchum artist working with contemporary installation and performance in relation to identity and presenting idealistic versions of oneself because of where one grows up or where an individual belongs to. His artist statement, as follows, clearly explains his views on how identity is affected, and can be changed, in the world today in regards to public perception and a marketed society, specifically for him, in regards to being First Nations.
-”In the United States, we Indians have been forced, by various means, to live up to the ideals of what “Being an Indian” is to the general public: In art, it means the work “Looked Indian”, and that look was controlled by the market. If the market said that it (my work) did not look “Indian” then it did not sell. If it did not sell, then it wasn’t Indian. I think somewhere in the mess, many Indian artists forgot who they were by doing work that had nothing to do with their tribe, by doing work that did not tell about their existence in the world today, and by doing work for others and not themselves. It is my feeling that artwork in the medias of Performance and Installation offers an opportunity like no other for Indian people to express themselves in traditional art forms of ceremony, dance, oral traditions and contemporary thought, without compromise. Within these (nontraditional) spaces, one can use a variety of media, such as found/made objects, sounds, video and slides so that there is no limit to how and what is expressed.” -James Luna
The most important piece of this statement is where Luna discusses how Indians have been forced to live up to ideals of others based on their identity of being First Nations. This is a crucial aspect of identity because it is based on the area in which one grows up in or belongs, once again showing that land is a major aspect in identity. However, unlike Towell’s work who focuses on physical changes to land; Luna works with the public’s perception of one’s identity, Luna argues that public perceptions of individuals’ identities are based on where people are from or where they grew up.
Both Larry Towell and James Luna have been instrumental in influencing my work and how I consider identity and the relationship to land people experience. My current interests lie within the idea that people form relationships with land they grow up in, live in, or experience a connection with, and when changes occur to this area they consider home, their sense of self is questioned and identity has the possibility to be changed or affected. Currently I have been focusing on conflict that has occurred in my community. One of my largest explorations has been a photographic and written project and community collaboration surrounding the Kinder Morgan protests on Burnaby Mountain. I grew up in a small, tight knit community, directly underneath Burnaby Mountain, which is a place many community members use daily for hiking, mountain biking and dog walking. Thus, when the pipeline project began and protests occurred, many protesters used the community to walk through for access to trails up the mountain. Although there was no physical damage done to the land, it was still changed by an event that has become a part of community history, and many people, including myself, view the area of Burnaby Mountain differently in the aftermath. Like Larry Towell’s work, this Burnaby Mountain piece explores changes that have occurred to a place that individuals belong to, hence the people within this area experience a sense of, as Towell’s terms it, “landlessness.” This initial exploration into the events on Burnaby Mountain and interest in Towell’s work, led into the exploration of other events that have occurred within my community. The current construction of the Evergreen Skytrain Line within my community consists of boring for underground tunnels within a residential area, the ground was not inspected before the process began, overnight sinkholes occurred in two spots in front of residential townhouses, blocking off entrance and exit for residents. Talking to many of these residents, they weren’t upset about the sinkhole specifically, but rather, the fact that this construction occurred without notification or opinion of the residents. Many felt as if their home was being taken over, the area in which they belong to was being changed and therefore their sense of belonging, sense of home and sense of community was being affected. It also changed how people viewed the community, many houses were for sale in the area, however when prospective buyers learned of what events had occurred, many became uninterested in the area. Like James Luna’s work, this idea relates to how people on the outside of areas or situations may view the area based on the identity of people who live there or the events that have occurred on that land.
In closing, relationships with land become part of one’s identity through growing up in the area or having experiences with the land where a relationship can be formed, this relationship with an area becomes apart of ones identity. Throughout exploration of my work, works of Larry Towell, and James Luna, it is clear that events that occur on land and in places people consider home, can affect ones sense of belonging, evidently affecting ones identity.
Works Cited
Luna, James. “Art Statement” James Luna: Allow Me to Introduce Myself. http://www.jamesluna.com/mainstage/artstatement10.html. Web Access March 16 2015
Towell, Larry. “Artist Statement.” The World from My Front Porch.” 1990s. http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx. Web Access March 14 2015
Meagan Staples 