Une Priere Pour Wichikapache

Natasha Krenbol

Swiss-born artist Natasha Krenbol has traveled throughout the world working as an artist, and has often referred to the people and places she has come across as inspirations for her Abstract works. In this intaglio, Krenbol borrows from the Canadian First Nations to refer to Wichikapache, the Swampy Cree tribe’s iteration of “trickster,” considered by them to be the first human being and the first storyteller. Trickster is an integral part of many North American tribes’ creation tales and lesson fables; in the case of the Swampy Cree, one of the trickster’s roles in society is that of a shapeshifting being who teaches behavioral accountability through harmless but poignant mischief.

The title of this piece loosely translates to “A Prayer for Wichikapache”. Krenbol interprets what may very well be the petroglyphs of the Cree Nation, etched on two plates using sugarlift and aquatint; the effect is texturally similar to the petroglyphs found on the indigenous lands of the Cree people. Krenbol has created several interpretive pieces of Wichikapache, including paintings.