On April 10, 2026, North Vancouver’s Polygon Valley unveiled the sculpture Eye of the Ancestor by Coast Salish artist James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry, capturing Indigenous pedagogies in the physical form of a yellow cedar wooden sphere. The sculpture will be displayed from April 10th to October 18th, 2026.
Eye of the Ancestor, positioned in the lobby of The Polygon Gallery on Unceded Coast Salish Territory in North Vancouver, British Columbia, is the first encounter Polygon visitors will have with the space. This choice reflects even the construction of the sculpture, which is intended by Harry to pull forward Coast Salish principles of the inseparability of art and architecture. It also evokes the Coast Salish idea that every created or built form carries responsibility. In the piece's display of Coast Salish values, the piece represents the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Sustainable Cities and Communities.
James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh artist currently located in shíshálh Nation territory. The shíshálh Nation is comprised of Coast Salish people on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
“Becoming a parent fundamentally shifted my sense of responsibility, away from individual authorship and toward continuity,” Harry said, from a March Polygon press release. “I am a Coast Salish artist contributing to a broader cultural resurgence.”
Carved into the sculpture’s cedar sphere surface are Coast Salish designs, with ovals, trigons, and crescent shapes. The exterior wooden shell of Eye of the Ancestor holds a polished steel sphere, which acts as a mirror reflecting the sculpture’s viewers to themselves. In all, it succeeds in appearing like an eye, but its reflections shift with how viewers decide to move around it and around the Polygon Gallery space.
But the title and construction of this piece as an eye are not a random choice on Harry’s part. It is a thoughtful decision, informed by his dedication to his Coast Salish culture. In Coast Salish visual language, an eye means awareness, presence, and continuity that go beyond an individual. Eye of the Ancestor creates with it an immersive spatial system where visual knowledge through its form is layered.
“Eye of the Ancestor is, in part, about creating a space where that intergenerational relationship is not explained, but physically felt,” said Harry. The piece not only has physical layers but also layers of cultural memory attached to its construction.
In an Instagram post on April 12 celebrating the project’s completion, Harry wrote, "This work is about connection across time… past, present, future… and a reminder that we’re never standing here alone.”
Find out more about James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry's work by checking out his Instagram, @jamesharryart.