[nativestudies-l] Fwd: Exhibit: "No Reservations" at Aldrich

[alyssa.mt.pleasant at yale.edu]

No Reservations: Native American History and Culture in Contemporary Art
August 23, 2006 to February 25, 2007
Exhibition Reception: Sunday, October 15, 2006; 3 to 6 pm
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
http://www.aldrichart.org/

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, census figures attest that more
and more Americans are identifying themselves as Native American.  With the
populace claiming Native ancestry growing three times as fast as the population
as a whole, Native people are one of the fastest-growing minority groups in the
United States.

Recognizing its location in an area steeped in Native lore, The Aldrich
Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to announce the exhibition No Reservations:
Native American History and Culture in Contemporary Art, which will be on view
from August 23, 2006, to February 25, 2007. The exhibition reception will be on
Sunday, October 15, from 3 to 6 pm.  Direct transportation from New York is
available. Please call 203.438.4519 to reserve a seat.

Curated by Aldrich director of exhibitions Richard Klein and funded by The Andy
Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation,
and LEF Foundation, this large-scale group exhibition looks at artists whose
work deals with both the deep cultural legacies and complex histories of Native
peoples in the United States. The project challenges preconceived ideas of what
form Native-influenced work can take.

The ten artists in the exhibition are Matthew Buckingham, Lewis deSoto, Peter
Edlund, Nicholas Galanin, Jeffrey Gibson, Rigo 23, Duane Slick, Marie Watt,
Yoram Wolberger, and Edie Winograde. This is a generation that has come of age
since the initial Native Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Their work
acknowledges the past, while integrating the influences of the modern world and
global culture. Much of the work being considered does not look ?Indian,?
but rather incorporates Native content in surprising and innovative ways that
defy easy categorization.

GE has donated silicone for use in Jeffrey Gibson?s new site-specific work and
Sheila and Charlie Perrin have donated about 400 blankets, which Marie Watt will
utilize to create a major new sculpture entitled Dwelling.  In accord with the
artist?s intention, at the conclusion of the exhibition the blankets will be
distributed to homeless shelters and low-income families throughout
Connecticut.

Significantly, the exhibition includes work by both Native and non-Native
artists, but will present only artists who engage the larger contemporary art
world, as opposed to those attempting to maintain strict Native artistic
traditions.  No Reservations is based on the premise that the influence of
Native culture and history is pervasive and has acted as inspiration for a
diverse group of artists, resulting in work that explores the topic from
multiple vantage points.

The implication of organizing No Reservations on the East Coast, and
particularly in Connecticut, is also important and wide-ranging. The Aldrich is
located in a region where European colonization initiated the first truly
organized genocide of Native peoples. The Pequot, of eastern Connecticut, were
the first tribal group living in the land that would become the United States
to be systematically eliminated. This history, combined with the rebirth and
economic success of the Pequot nation in the last 25 years, creates a
significant social and political landscape in which to present this exhibition.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a major catalogue, including contributions
by Native writer and curator Paul Chaat Smith, who is associate curator of the
Smithsonian?s National Museum of the American Indian, and co-author of Like a
Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, and noted writer
Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Killing the White Man?s Indian and Bound for
Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America.

No Reservations has been made possible, in part, by funding from The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts, LEF Foundation, and Elizabeth Firestone Graham
Foundation. GE Silicone II for Jeffrey Gibson's work generously provided by the
General Electric Company. Marie Watt's Dwelling
blanket project supported, in part, by and Charlie and Sheila Perrin,Tod and
Barbara Hamachek, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Ashforth III.