"Using stereotypical images of Indians, and making them vulnerable through humor, Fonseca challenges the viewer," says Margaret Archuleta of the Heard Museum. With his female coyote counterpart, Rose, he dances a pas de deux from Swan Lake, or sells pottery, jewelry and kachina figures at Indian Market. He poses as a tobacco store Indian in full eagle headdress and Levi's outside a Hollywood studio. He hangs out in the city in a black, metal-studded leather jacket and high-tops. Ever-resourceful, ever alert, Fonseca's Coyote leaves the reservation. The images are full of humor, yet speak directly to the challenges of our time. Then he catapulted Coyote into contemporary times to fashion a modern myth of Coyote in the city. His earliest drawings were dancers in traditional regalia and coyote headdress, the "spirit impersonators" of Maidu ritual. Harry Fonseca has been making images of Coyote for more than a decade. He is a symbol of survival, adaptability and balance. Virtuous and deceitful, mortal and immortal, ordinary and extraordinary, Coyote personifies deeply conflicting impulses. He is the most powerful, yet the most "human" of the Native American gods and demigods. In legend, he is variously described as an animal with tail and pointy snout, and a man-old and ugly or young and handsome.Ĭoyote is a magical figure who can bridge worlds and transcend time. Coyote is, after all, a spirit who can change form at will. If Coyote, the ancient trickster and changer of Native American mythology, were to walk into a room today, he might resemble Harry Fonseca, who is tall and slim with an alert, intelligent face and watchful eyes. Courtesy of Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Coyote Leaves the Res by Harry Fonseca, 1982, oil on canvas.
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