Artie George
Shaman's Rattle
18 1/4"
L x 4 1/4" W
Artie George is a Coast Salish
wood carver. Born in North Vancouver in 1970, he is from the
Tsleil-Waututh Nation (Burrard Band). He is the grandnephew of
the respected actor, author and raconteur Chief Dan George.
Self-taught, Artie's fifteen
years of experience dedicated to his art has awarded him respect
from his peers as a carver of fine detail. Through his art, Artie
George expresses visually what his great-uncle embodied in the
words and deeds of his life; the face of our own humanity, at
once with nature and the great spirit within.
He participates in aboriginal
events and major, juried craft shows such as the Circle Craft
and Out of Hand Exhibitions. His works are found in the Glenbow
Museum in Calgary and the University of British Columbia Museum
of Anthropology.
Northwest Coast rattles are
finely sculptured percussive instruments that are employed to
communicate with the spirit world. The high, light, swooshing
sound of a thinly carved hardwood rattle is known to attract
benevolent spirits, and is often used to accompany spiritual
songs that call on the spirits of ancestors to aid in times of
transition or crisis.
The Tlingit name for the raven
rattle is Sheishoox, a word that imitates the sound of the instrument.
Certain kinds of rattles are the exclusive property of shamans,
used in their specialized kinds of spirit communication, while
others are employed by clan
and family leaders in sanctifying a ceremonial space or gathering.
Shaman's rattles in the north
were most often globular in form, or among the Tlingit, the oystercatcher
rattle was the type used exclusively in shamanic practice. In
the Central Coast Salish region, the sheep horn rattle was the
type created for ritualistic use.
Perhaps the most graceful
and delicate object created by Northwest Coast ceremonialists,
the Raven rattle is also a very old and respected object of tradition.
Certain extremely old and brittle ones exist, likely collected
from graves, which suggest that the image usually portrayed is
one that is very ancient, though its specific origin is unknown.
This arrangement of raven,
human, and sometimes frog has been reinterpreted by successive
generations of artists, most of whom leave the core image absolutely
intact, while rendering their own unique variations of the details
thereon.
This example bears the most
common raven rattle features: the form line face with a received
beak on the belly, the tail of the raven raised up and elaborated
into a long-beaked bird face, and the reclining human figure
with its tongue held in the beak of the tail-bird.
In this version, the tail
is set more forward on the raven¹s body than on many others,
and the body and legs of the human are correspondingly short.
The face of the human is handled as a softly-arched, formline-type
structure, the features of the face quite shallowly relieved.
The head of the raven has
been cut through up the middle, isolating the neck and opening
a space between the ears. This traditional structure harmonizes
with the delicate piercing on the back of the raven, and removes
unwanted weight from the wood which may affect the rattle¹s
sound.
The flat design embellishment
is of an early style. A rattle such as this would have been held
by a succession of high-ranking chiefs of clans at ceremonial
gatherings as a symbol of wealth and prestige, as an accompaniment
to songs and dance.
