timeline
2010s
2000s
1990s
Rosalie Favell, If only you could love me... 1999
1980s
1970s
1800s
heliograph
treated w pewter plate
taken with camera obscura and exposed hours/days
inspired by lithgraphy
Thematic elements
Current Dialogue from Indigenous Curators and Artists: confronting and exposing critical issues concerning Native North Americans
• Exclusionism
• Language
• Community
• Land and place
• Identity
• Stereotypes
• Commodification of art & culture
• Traditional museum and gallery
practices
• Developing our own art histories
• Treaties & rights
• Environment
• Colonialism
• Racism
• Sovereignty
• Global initiatives
• Authority and territory
• Redirecting art, expression and
curatorial practice back to Aboriginal
communities
• Art writings needing to be published
within the context of Aboriginal
history
• Telling our own stories
• Collections & acquisitions
• Art interventions
Confronting and exposing critical issues
concerning Native North Americans:
Canoes (NAN)
Teresa Marshall, Elitekey, 1990, cement. LAND, SPIRIT, POWER, National Gallery of Canada.
in the end, Elitekey is not only a boat that will not float, but it also warns that culture itself has ossified.
originally meant to suggest hope, evoking image of Glooscap "who at a time of great need, was to come to the aid of the people in a great stone canoe".
meaning changed with Oka crisis in 1990; "the canoe became an oxymoron, a crypt rather than a cradle."
"The canoe has long represented freedom of movement... one of the most iconic images of Native art in North America.
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Indigenous Erotica!!!!
Kent Monkman, Wedding at Sodom, 2017. Acrylic on canvas.
Norval Morrisseau, Artist in Union with Mother Earth, 1972. Acrylic on canvas. 78x117cm (BIG)
approaches to erotica
sexual union of man and woman
celebration of new life and renewal of human spirit
personal sexual experiences and fantasies involving men
Morrisseau's erotic paintings were hidden away in museum vaults
Photography
Alexander Gardner, A Burial Party, Cold Harbor, Virginia, 1865, Albumen print.
first war in american history to be photographically documented; painstakingly so
inspired future combat photographers like jim nachtwey
stripped romance out of the idea of war
Joseph Niepce, View from the Window at Le Gras, c. 1826. Heliograph.
first photograph
VISUAL SOVEREIGNTY
relationship between tribal sovereignty and artists social, political, economic, and intellectual role
self-portraiture- artist is performing a role
Wendy Red Star, Fall from The Four Seasons Series, 2006, Photograph.
shallowly staged space, similar to life-sized diorama
uncanniness, unsettling viewer
background is a wall mural, not real
plants and "earth" are plastic and carpet
deer is a blow-up toy
same set of regalia in every piece
pocahontas trope
"indian princess" look
selection of animals
reclaiming older photographs
archival photographs curtis-like
family portraits and everyday snapshots
"making special"
a5. art criticism in print
4. exhibition catalogues
3. presenting the photograph
2. editing/selecting the photograph
1. taking the photograph
Tense topic
Who's behind the camera
Photographs were used as an economic, ideological, and political tool against Native populations.
documented efficfacy of assimilationist policies
evidence of the need for intervention: "before" and "after" photos
documended physical, racialized differences
used to demonstrate inferiority of colonized peoples
sculpture
Brett Graham, Te Hokioi, 2008, MDF, fibreglass, steel, car lacquer
shape of an American F117 Nighthawk stealth fighter jet
named after hokioi- extinct native eagle
traditional designs representing ripples made when paddle hits water
references 2007 Urewera raids, legalized by the Terrorism Suppression Act of 2002
Brian Jungen, Prototype for a New Understanding #8, 1999, Nike athletic footwear,
Mask made out of Nike Air Jordans
asks questions of commodity culture
NEEED MOOOOOORRRREEEE
One of most highly regarded Canadian artists of his generation
draws inspiration from experience of post-industrial consumerism and first nations heritage
third generation- WOMEN!!
Rose B Simpson, Warrior, 2012, Ceramic, mixed media, found objects.
representative of self-exploration through self-portraits.
questions of identity and cultural survival
post-apocalyptic reaction to the self-portrait
agender body
"the future of NA sculpture may be in the hands of female artists."
interest in comic books, gaming, street art, and urban alternative arts influences her work
Pueblo woman, used clay a lot, was a point of contention at RISD
Second generation
Preston Singletary, Raven Steals the Sun, 2003, hand-blown, sandblasted, etched glass.
Raven Steals the Sun is illustration of the PNW story of how Raven brought light into the world.
Tlingit
merger of old and new, unrestricted conduit for continuation of Tlingit cultural knowledge
precision of form, design, and color transforms glass into a contemporary cultural artifact; illustrates tribal and regional stories
among the first Indians to experiment with hot glass (in 70s and 80s)
Truman Lowe, Waterfall VIII, 2011, Pine
Subtopic
innovator of native scultpture
effectively connects traditional and contemporary, abstract and representational, to secure future of indian sculpture... lol
use of ancient materials combines form and material with personal history and individual expression
1st Generation: Native pioneers of sculpture
George Morrison, Red Totem, 1980, Stained cedar
Totem is Ojibwe for "Family mark"
totems also were known as cultural artifacts and NOT art, adored by anthropologists
used found wood, stained.
worked from bottom to top
Ojibwe, raised in culture
known for opening a new modernist era in Native art history, abandoning generalized aesthetics in favor of experimentation and expression.
known as member of MAINSTREAM ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT
learned in mainstream institutions
Allan Houser, Silent Observer, 1985, Bronze Casting.
man seated with legs pulled to chest, ABSTRACT mass, monumental silhouette.
Houser was a pioneer in Native Sculpture along with Willard Stone. Self-Taught
learned to sculpt from a book
connected to culture- Chihuahua Apache
Sculptures were often referred to as carvings.
Installation
Jonathan ones, untitled (infinity), 2011, large, fluorescent tubes, mild?
Lonnie Hutchinson, Sista7, 2003. Black building paper. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.
personal response to the mass and grandeur of the new zealand landscape
ancient and solid mountain forms - resemble mist
maori descent
Bonnie Devine, Canoe, 2003, mixed media and graphite on paper, thread, twine, beads
Brian Jungen, Shapeshifter, 2000, plastic chairs. Purchased 2001 National Gallery of Canada.
evokes idea of skeletal remains and the anthropological exploitation of NNA and their remains - they are still in museums today, treated like commodities.
Skeleton of a baeleen whale made of cheap plastic chairs
Brian Jungen - also did Prototype for New Understanding in 1999
Teresa Marshall, Elitekey, 1990, cement
The Oka Crisis, Sep 1 1990, Shaney Komulainen of the Canadien Press.
fiber arts
Nadia Myer, The Indian Act, 2000-2202, mixed media
The 1876 Indian Act, which made Indigenous people wards of the Crown, remains a blot on Canadian history. Close to 125 years later, Nadia Myre denounced the discriminatory and exclusionary nature of this law with Indian Act. To subvert and re-appropriate the legislative text, she used the traditional technique of beading*. White beads replace the words on the first 56 pages of the Act, rendering it null and void. Created with the assistance of 200 volunteers, the work exposes and decries a colonial policy still partially in effect today.
Material threats
Terrence Houle and Wendy Red Star, Motor Oil Buffalo Dress, 2013. Installation. Vinyl decals, vinyl, and beads.
Charlene Vickers, Variations and Traces of Ancestral Slaves,2013-2014. Beer cartons, glass beads, thread, felt, dimensions variable.
realistic not romanticized
Donna Karan and Virgil Ortiz
featured in vogue
use of ancestral traditional storytelling pottery designs
cochiti pueblo
Wally Dion, Star Blanket III, 2012, circuit boards, wire and copper. 48x46". biggish.
