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Current
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Talking Back Encouraged at Kennedy Museum
of Art Exhibition |
ATHENS,
Ohio – Many people remember playing
with toys as children that had a Native American
theme: a cowboys and Indians game set, dolls
dressed like a “Native American princess”.
A new exhibition at Ohio University’s
Kennedy Museum of Art explores how the presence
of these commercial items has helped to perpetuate
stereotypes about “Indian-ness”.
“Talking Back” was the final project
of students enrolled in Native American Art
History 439/539, offered last fall and was
curated by the class. Dr. Jennifer McLerran,
curator of the Kennedy Museum of Art, taught
the course that covered Native American art
from prehistory to the present, and included
undergraduate and graduate students from a
variety of disciplines within the university,
including Art History, Anthropology, Art Education,
Art Studio, and Communications. Classes were
held at the Kennedy Museum of Art (KMA) to
allow students access to objects from the
museum's nationally renowned Kennedy Southwest
Native American Collection.
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The
exhibition explores how Native Americans respond
to stereotypes about their culture by pairing commercial
items depicting “Indian-ness” with objects
made by native hands from the Kennedy Southwest
Native American Collection. In one pairing, a Playmobil
Indian Village play set depicting a Plains Indian
village, is paired with two Navajo pictorial weavings
that portray contemporary reservation life. The
weavings, by Florence Riggs and Louise Nez, show
how Native American artists of today have embraced
the modern while retaining the traditional, McLerran
says.
Students also produced an interactive education
kiosk that asks, “How do stereotypes begin?”
Visitors answer questions about American Indian
stereotypes on the back of postcards provided that
show stereotypical images associated with the culture.
Visitors tack them to a corkboard painted with stereotypical
words associated with American Indians.
Student curator Eliza Clarke says the kiosk is meant
to show how stereotypes about Native Americans still
remain embedded in our culture.
“Many people never give a thought to them.
From mascots to street names, words like ‘Injun’
and ‘redskin’ still make their way into
everyday vernacular,” says Clarke, a junior
majoring in cultural anthropology.
Clarke says “Talking Back” also aims
at changing the western notion about Native American
art’s artistic value.
“The artistic value of Native American art
is sometimes dismissed and not thought of as highly
as ‘Western’ art since it tends to be
portable, made of natural materials, and is often
highly functional or ceremonial,” she says.
The exhibition is on display until May 28. Kennedy
Museum of Art gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday
and Friday, 12 to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 12 to 8 p.m.;
Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm. Admission and parking
are free. For information call (740) 593-1304. For
more information visit www.ohio.edu/museum. |
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