Exhibition dates: 26th May – 8th September 2013
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Another interesting exhibition that this blog likes promoting, this time about mixed-race identity.
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Many thankx to The Craft & Folk Art Museum for allowing me to publish the art work in the posting. Please click on the images for a larger version of the art.
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Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Finding My Song Weapons
2012
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Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Finding My Song Weapons (detail)
2012
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Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Finding My Song
2012
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Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Finding My Song
2012
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Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Finding My Song
2012
Projections on rawhide
Courtesy of the Anchorage Museum
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Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Finding My Song
2012
Projections on rawhide
Courtesy of the Anchorage Museum
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Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Finding My Song
2012
Projections on rawhide
Courtesy of the Anchorage Museum
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Nicholas Galanin
There is No “I” in Indian
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Digital photograph
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Nicholas Galanin
White Carver
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Performance and installation
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Nicholas Galanin
Indian Land
2012
Digital photograph
Courtesy of the artist
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Nicholas Galanin
Things Are Looking Native, Native’s Looking Whiter
2012
Digital photograph
Courtesy of the artist
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“The Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in collaboration with the Anchorage Museum presents This Is Not A Silent Movie: Four Contemporary Alaska Native Artists, an exhibition centered around four acclaimed Alaska Native artists whose groundbreaking contemporary works question institutional methods of identifying Native heritage, examine their own mixed-race identities, and challenge perceptions and stereotypes about indigenous peoples. It will be on view from Sunday, May 26 through Sunday, September 8, 2013.
Through the language of contemporary visual art, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Susie Silook, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, and Nicholas Galanin seek new and distinct ways to speak of tradition and mediate the serious and sometimes ironic conditions of art, identity, and history in the late 20th and early 21st century. Though each artist’s work is rooted in a lifelong immersion in their respective Alaska Native craft traditions, their multi-media installations dissolve the boundaries between contemporary and traditional arts.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq/Athabascan) utilizes media such as polyurethane, Beluga intestine, and walrus stomach into her paintings, sculptures, and labor-intensive installations. These works often simulate skin, which is a point of investigation into her struggle for self-definition and identity. Nicholas Galanin’s (Tlingit/Aleut) video and photography installations object to the cultural appropriation and categorization of indigenous peoples by popular culture. In “Things are Looking Native, Native’s Looking Whiter,” Galanin creates a split image that is a composite of one of photographer Edward Curtis’ Native American models with actress Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars. The image references the cross-pollination of the traditional butterfly whorl hairstyle that was worn by unmarried Hopi girls and the popular culture image. In 2013, Galanin received a major award from United States Artists.
Carver Susie Silook (Yupik/Iñupiaq) is a writer and sculptor. The ancestral ivory dolls of Saint Lawrence, traditionally carved by men, are the basis of her work. Silook also departs from tradition by depicting women in her carvings rather than the animals most commonly rendered by men. Her walrus tusk carvings add a distinctly feminist perspective to an otherwise male-dominated art form as they address the widespread incidence of sexual abuse and violence perpetrated against Native women. Silook received a United States Artists Fellowship in 2007. Da-ka-xeen Mehner’s installation “Finding My Song” (Tlingit/N’ishga) draws upon his family’s stories to take a personal look at the retention and reclamation of language. The installation is inspired partially by his grandmother, whose mouth was washed out with soap whenever she spoke her Tlingit language in school in order to “encourage” her to speak English. Mehner’s work examines his own multicultural heritage – and the social expectations and definitions that accompany each aspect of it.
The title This is Not A Silent Movie comes from a quote by Native American writer and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, who works to move audiences away from narrow and stereotypical views of Native people – a view that Native people had very little influence in shaping. The exhibition has been curated by Julie Decker, Ph.D., Chief Curator at the Anchorage Museum.”
Press release from The Craft & Folk Art Museum website
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Susie Silook
Keeping My Heart
2008
Courtesy of Anchorage Museum Collection
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Susie Silook
Aghnaghpak (Great Woman)
African Mahogany, whalebone, polar bear, turquoise, baleen, ivory, ink, walrus stomach membrane, brass
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Susie Silook
The Healer
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Basswood, caribou antler, ivory, baleen, seal whiskers, purple heart, red ocher
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Susie Silook
Ice Incantation
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Walrus ivory, purple heart, porcupine quills, polar bear, blue bead, baleen, red ocher, whalebone, wood
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Susie Silook
Mighty Elder
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Ivory, natural stones, polar bear, whale bone, brass, pastels
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The Craft & Folk Art Museum
5814 Wilshire Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Opening hours:
Tuesday-Friday, 11.00 am to 5.00 pm
Saturday/Sunday, 12.00pm to 6.00pm
Closed Mondays.
The Craft & Folk Art Museum website
Filed under: American, American Indians, american photographers, black and white photography, colour photography, digital photography, exhibition, existence, gallery website, landscape, light, memory, painting, photography, portrait, sculpture, space, time Tagged: Aghnaghpak (Great Woman), Alaska, Alaska Native artists, Alaska Native craft traditions, Anchorage Museum, art, CAFAM, Carrie Fisher, Contemporary Alaska Native Artists, Craft & Folk Art Museum, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, Da-ka-xeen Mehner Finding My Song, Da-ka-xeen Mehner Finding My Song Weapons, Edward Curtis, Edward Curtis' Native American models, Finding My Song, Finding My Song Weapons, Four Contemporary Alaska Native Artists, history, identity, Indian Land, ivory dolls of Saint Lawrence, los angeles, mixed-race identity, native american indians, Nicholas Galanin, Nicholas Galanin Indian Land, Nicholas Galanin There is No "I" in Indian, Nicholas Galanin Things Are Looking Native Native's Looking Whiter, Nicholas Galanin White Carver, Princess Leia, Saint Lawrence, Sherman Alexie, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Star Wars, Susie Silook, Susie Silook Aghnaghpak (Great Woman), Susie Silook Ice Incantation, Susie Silook Keeping My Heart, Susie Silook Mighty Elder, Susie Silook The Healer, The Craft & Folk Art Museum, There is No "I" in Indian, Things Are Looking Native Native's Looking Whiter, This Is Not A Silent Movie, This Is Not A Silent Movie: Four Contemporary Alaska Native Artists, Tlingit language, White Carver
