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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World
Dustinn Craig, Fausto Fernandez, Luis Gutierrez, David Hannan, Gregory Lomayesva, Brian David Kahehtowanen Miller, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Kent Monkman, Nadia Myre, Alan Natachu, Hector Ruiz, Anna Tsouhlarakis, Kade L. Twist, Bernard Williams, Steven Yazzie
Did anybody here see this show at the AGO this summer? Sarah Milroy wrote a provocative review of the exhibition in April that has been reposted here, at indianz.com. The show was co-curated by Gerald McMaster and Joe Baker in a collaboration between the Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. According to the curators, the exhibition represented a generation of artists that "doesn’t feel compelled to reflect a traditional tribal identity in their work." It was an exploration of hybridity, featuring 15 artists from Canada, the United States and Mexico. According to Milroy, "The works on view seem to have lost the vitality of traditional culture, gaining little in the bargain. The curators have made weak choices: These works don't feel dynamically hybrid so much as simply diluted." To put it bluntly, Milroy didn't like the art. But she took her critique further, posing the question of whether or not exhibitions themed around aboriginal identity have become outdated and anachronistic.
McMaster, to his credit, invited Milroy to participate on a panel last Sunday to publicly discuss the issue, and Milroy, to her credit, showed up. Joe Baker was also on the panel along with Salah Hassan, professor of African and African Diaspora art history and visual culture. It was an interesting event.
read the rest of the review...