Sgungo - Red Cedar Mask
Sgungo - Red Cedar Mask
Appx. 13" x 13" x 5"
22" tall with hair
With duck feathers, horse hair, and acrylic paint
"Sgungo or Skungonah was a hermit who lived in a cave near Kiusta, living on raw fish and birds.
This mask is a study of an old Haida mask which had feathers around the mouth, and the appearance of starvation. I concluded that this mask represents the hermit of Kiusta. His cave later became a burial cave.
Masks like this would be used by secret society members and part of a series of songs that open up the potlatch. There is a song that goes with the mask, and a dance where he reaches into holes for birds and eats them in the reenactment.
It is said he was seen carrying birds (the ancient murrelet) back to his cave and he gave the appearance of them being a much larger and heavier catch than they were in reality."
-Corey Bulpitt
Corey Bulpitt
CULTURAL GROUP:
Haida
BORN:
1978
BIRTHPLACE:
Prince Rupert, BC
Corey Bulpitt is from the Naikun Raven clan. In 1996, Corey graduated from Langley Fine Art School. He then apprenticed with his uncle, Haida artist Christian White, in 1999 for three years. He also worked for his uncle, Haida master carver Jim Hart, at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, BC. Corey has carved many totem poles, including a 20-foot pole for Scouts Canada, a 17-foot pole at Queen Charlotte Lodge, and a 14-foot memorial pole at the Namgis burial ground in Alert Bay, BC. He also completed a pole in New Zealand with Maori master carver Lionel Grant alongside Dempsey Bob (Tahltan/Tlingit), Joe David (Nuu-chah-nulth), and Christian White (Haida). In 2008, Corey's red cedar Butterfly mask was featured in The Gathering, a calendar that highlights prominent First Nations artists working in BC. In 2012, Corey was featured in the travelling exhibition Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture curated by the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2014, his successful solo show AKOS, which highlighted his background as a graffiti artist, was exhibited at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver. In 2017, Corey received a BC Creative Achievement Award for Aboriginal Art.
