e

fiber arts

Material threats

featured in vogue

use of ancestral traditional storytelling pottery designs

cochiti pueblo

realistic not romanticized

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.

Installation

Brian Jungen - also did Prototype for New Understanding in 1999

Skeleton of a baeleen whale made of cheap plastic chairs

evokes idea of skeletal remains and the anthropological exploitation of NNA and their remains - they are still in museums today, treated like commodities.

maori descent

personal response to the mass and grandeur of the new zealand landscape

ancient and solid mountain forms - resemble mist

sculpture

1st Generation: Native pioneers of sculpture

Houser was a pioneer in Native Sculpture along with Willard Stone. Self-Taught

Sculptures were often referred to as carvings.

connected to culture- Chihuahua Apache

learned to sculpt from a book

man seated with legs pulled to chest, ABSTRACT mass, monumental silhouette.

Ojibwe, raised in culture

learned in mainstream institutions

known as member of MAINSTREAM ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT

known for opening a new modernist era in Native art history, abandoning generalized aesthetics in favor of experimentation and expression.

Totem is Ojibwe for "Family mark"

worked from bottom to top

used found wood, stained.

totems also were known as cultural artifacts and NOT art, adored by anthropologists

Second generation

innovator of native scultpture

use of ancient materials combines form and material with personal history and individual expression

effectively connects traditional and contemporary, abstract and representational, to secure future of indian sculpture... lol

Subtopic

Tlingit

among the first Indians to experiment with hot glass (in 70s and 80s)

precision of form, design, and color transforms glass into a contemporary cultural artifact; illustrates tribal and regional stories

merger of old and new, unrestricted conduit for continuation of Tlingit cultural knowledge

Raven Steals the Sun is illustration of the PNW story of how Raven brought light into the world.

third generation- WOMEN!!

"the future of NA sculpture may be in the hands of female artists."

Pueblo woman, used clay a lot, was a point of contention at RISD

interest in comic books, gaming, street art, and urban alternative arts influences her work

representative of self-exploration through self-portraits.

agender body

post-apocalyptic reaction to the self-portrait

questions of identity and cultural survival

One of most highly regarded Canadian artists of his generation

draws inspiration from experience of post-industrial consumerism and first nations heritage

Mask made out of Nike Air Jordans

asks questions of commodity culture

NEEED MOOOOOORRRREEEE

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

Photography

Tense topic

Who's behind the camera

Photographs were used as an economic, ideological, and political tool against Native populations.

documended physical, racialized differences

used to demonstrate inferiority of colonized peoples

documented efficfacy of assimilationist policies

evidence of the need for intervention: "before" and "after" photos

"making special"

1. taking the photograph

2. editing/selecting the photograph

3. presenting the photograph

4. exhibition catalogues

a5. art criticism in print

VISUAL SOVEREIGNTY

relationship between tribal sovereignty and artists social, political, economic, and intellectual role

reclaiming older photographs

family portraits and everyday snapshots

archival photographs curtis-like

self-portraiture- artist is performing a role

shallowly staged space, similar to life-sized diorama

pocahontas trope

selection of animals

"indian princess" look

uncanniness, unsettling viewer

same set of regalia in every piece

deer is a blow-up toy

plants and "earth" are plastic and carpet

background is a wall mural, not real

same set of regalia in every piece

first photograph

first war in american history to be photographically documented; painstakingly so

stripped romance out of the idea of war

inspired future combat photographers like jim nachtwey

Indigenous Erotica!!!!

Morrisseau's erotic paintings were hidden away in museum vaults

approaches to erotica

personal sexual experiences and fantasies involving men

sexual union of man and woman

celebration of new life and renewal of human spirit

Thematic elements

Canoes (NAN)

"The canoe has long represented freedom of movement... one of the most iconic images of Native art in North America.

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."

in the end, Elitekey is not only a boat that will not float, but it also warns that culture itself has ossified.

Subtopic

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:

timeline

1800s

first photograph

heliograph

inspired by lithgraphy

taken with camera obscura and exposed hours/days

treated w pewter plate

first war in american history to be photographically documented; painstakingly so

stripped romance out of the idea of war

inspired future combat photographers like jim nachtwey

1970s

Morrisseau's erotic paintings were hidden away in museum vaults

approaches to erotica

personal sexual experiences and fantasies involving men

sexual union of man and woman

celebration of new life and renewal of human spirit

1980s

Ojibwe, raised in culture

learned in mainstream institutions

known as member of MAINSTREAM ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT

known for opening a new modernist era in Native art history, abandoning generalized aesthetics in favor of experimentation and expression.

Totem is Ojibwe for "Family mark"

worked from bottom to top

used found wood, stained.

totems also were known as cultural artifacts and NOT art, adored by anthropologists

Houser was a pioneer in Native Sculpture along with Willard Stone. Self-Taught

Sculptures were often referred to as carvings.

connected to culture- Chihuahua Apache

learned to sculpt from a book

man seated with legs pulled to chest, ABSTRACT mass, monumental silhouette.

1990s

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."

in the end, Elitekey is not only a boat that will not float, but it also warns that culture itself has ossified.

2000s

One of most highly regarded Canadian artists of his generation

draws inspiration from experience of post-industrial consumerism and first nations heritage

Mask made out of Nike Air Jordans

asks questions of commodity culture

NEEED MOOOOOORRRREEEE

Brian Jungen - also did Prototype for New Understanding in 1999

Skeleton of a baeleen whale made of cheap plastic chairs

evokes idea of skeletal remains and the anthropological exploitation of NNA and their remains - they are still in museums today, treated like commodities.

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.

Tlingit

among the first Indians to experiment with hot glass (in 70s and 80s)

precision of form, design, and color transforms glass into a contemporary cultural artifact; illustrates tribal and regional stories

merger of old and new, unrestricted conduit for continuation of Tlingit cultural knowledge

Raven Steals the Sun is illustration of the PNW story of how Raven brought light into the world.

maori descent

personal response to the mass and grandeur of the new zealand landscape

ancient and solid mountain forms - resemble mist

shallowly staged space, similar to life-sized diorama

pocahontas trope

selection of animals

"indian princess" look

uncanniness, unsettling viewer

same set of regalia in every piece

deer is a blow-up toy

plants and "earth" are plastic and carpet

background is a wall mural, not real

same set of regalia in every piece

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

2010s

innovator of native scultpture

use of ancient materials combines form and material with personal history and individual expression

effectively connects traditional and contemporary, abstract and representational, to secure future of indian sculpture... lol

"the future of NA sculpture may be in the hands of female artists."

Pueblo woman, used clay a lot, was a point of contention at RISD

interest in comic books, gaming, street art, and urban alternative arts influences her work

representative of self-exploration through self-portraits.

agender body

post-apocalyptic reaction to the self-portrait

questions of identity and cultural survival

Material threats

featured in vogue

use of ancestral traditional storytelling pottery designs

cochiti pueblo

realistic not romanticized