West Coast Totem Raised At The McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Photos provided to Toronto Daily Newspaper
First West Coast Totem Pole Raised At An Ontario Public Institution in Decades

Haida artist and carver Don Yeomans stands beside his totem pole outside the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The 1,000 lb red cedar carving was delivered today to the public gallery in Kleinburg and installed in the building's lobby.
Don Yeomans is one of the most highly respected artists on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia.
Also pictured above is the20ft totem being raised inside the gallery. A gantry lifts Don Yeomans totem pole upright inside the McMichael Canadian Art Collection lobby in Kleinburg, Ontario. The west coast artist and carver oversaw the installation.
The gallery, with funding provided by the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation, commissioned the full-scale totem pole by this artist to create a new, unique piece for the Collection that will remain on permanent view in the gallery’s Grand Hall.
On the totem pole, Yeomans uses traditional iconography and totemic animals as a point of departure to comment on today’s different modes of technological communication. With this imagery, which includes an eagle holding a cell phone and a frog with a laptop computer, the artist challenges the tradition of representing the theme of totems as emblems of interpersonal and spiritual communications.
Photos By Stephen Weir, George Socka and Linda Morita