"Puffin Chase," Jenny Pope, colour-reduction woodcut, 19"x23.75", 2006*
Andy Warhol’s painting “Coca-Cola [4] Large Coca-Cola” of the American icon fetched $35.3 at a Sotheby’s auction this past fall. What would be the Newfoundland answer to such an icon? Ches’s Fish & Chips, some might say. What about the majestic Newfoundland dog? In Jenny Pope’s, “Puffin Chase,” these symbols of Newfoundland are pictured, along with a plethora of puffins, in a humorous scene.
Pope has taken the Newfoundland Dog, Ches’s, and the Puffin out of their traditional context, to present them in a new light, affording the viewer objectivity and a fresh perspective. Just as Warhol took the soup can out of the cupboard to be contemplated as a commentary on American culture, Pope has done much the same for these NL icons. The puffin, official bird of this province, perches casually atop a Ches’s restaurant while the Newfoundland, known for its calm disposition is pictured in an aggressive stance approaching a few puffins who are gathered on the ground. Maybe the ordering of the three “characters” in the print represent their status as symbols of NL, the ranking based on their position within the pictorial space. Perhaps it’s the relationship that all three have to the fishery, the puffin a fishing seabird, the Newfoundland a working dog used by fishermen, and Ches’s the famed restaurant for the ever popular dish among Newfoundlanders: fish ‘n chips.
More likely, though, it is simply an imagined meeting of the three, as Pope’s comment on this work is “you probably won't see a Newfoundland dog herding puffin on the sidewalk, but, anything is possible.” All three are significant to Newfoundland culture, and each has an unmistakable place therein.
*Jenny Pope was an artist in residence at St. Michael's Printshop (St. John's, NL) in 2006. While in residency, she made a series of Newfoundland dogs in Newfoundland landscapes. For more on Jenny, visit JPOP Studios!
