The hood of a car, unremarkable though it may be, serves a very distinct purpose — which is to provide protective cover for the automobile engine therein.
Bowen Island-based Yahgulanaas will have several new car-hood creations on display and for sale this month at his solo Madrona Gallery exhibition, which opens Nov. 5 and runs through Nov. 18. He began painting car parts 15 years ago. One early Vancouver exhibit included reconstituted Dodge, Chevrolet, and Plymouth car hoods, in addition to a gutted and fully painted Pontiac Firefly, which Yahgulanaas topped with a cedar canoe by Haida artist Bill Reid. Yahgulanaas later moved on to Toyota hoods, Volvo sunroofs and various gas tank caps, the latter of which will be featured at the Madrona Gallery.
The artist has a longstanding relationship with the city, dating back to the 1960s. Many of his family and friends are based here, and his 2019 collaboration with Pacific Opera Victoria, which saw the company adapt the children’s book he co-created, Flight of the Hummingbird, into a widely performed chamber opera, remains one of his career highlights.
Yahgulanaas is known in many corners of the world for his distinctive fusion of Haida imagery and manga, or Japanese graphic novels.