About the artwork
Leonard Getinthecar
Natural Resources, 1974/2013
Dimensions(h x w x d): 32" x 41"
Ink on seal hide
Located in Fariborz Maseeh Hall, basement level, north corridor
Natural Resources foregrounds the walrus, with whom Indigenous people have lived in balance and depended on as a source of fuel and food for thousands of years. The familiar form of an oil rig looms in the background as a reminder of the destructive impact extractive approaches to living have on land, and the life it sustains. The seal hide has been re-appropriated—the walruses were originally drawn by Martha Okinello in 1974, whose epigraph can be seen alongside the 2013 signatures of Nicholas and Jerrod Galanin.
About the artists
Leonard Getinthecar is the collective name of a collaboration between brothers Nicholas (Tlingit/Aleut) and Jerrod (Tlingit/Unangan) Galanin, Alaskan artists of Native descent who also each have their own separate practices. Nicholas is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician whose work often explores a dialogue of change and identity between Native and non-Native communities; specializing in silver and copper engraving and jewelry design, Jerrod also works in a variety of mediums, including paint, fur and fish skin, photography, and installation sculpture.
Learn more about the brothers' work on Nicholas and Jerrod's websites.
This work was acquired through Oregon's Percent for Art in Public Places Program, managed by the Oregon Arts Commission.
Banner image courtesy of the artists.