Native American artist Wendy Red Star’s Accession series, recently acquired by the Rockwell Museum, will be featured in an exhibition titled Objects in Motion: Wendy Red Star’s Accession Series. The suite of 15 prints evolved from Red Star’s Artist-in-Residence fellowship at the Denver Art Museum from 2016 to 2017, in which she used object card catalogs painted by Works Progress Administration artists that detailed the Denver Art Museum’s holdings of Native objects. The artist hand-painted clothing and personal regalia on small catalog cards with written descriptions included on the backs of the cards.
Wendy Red Star, Accession series, 2019, pigment print on archival paper, 19 x 29". Catalog Number 1945.249. Clara S. Peck Fund. 2021.2.3. The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY.
“Items once draped on horses, cars or the arms and bodies of the Apsáalooke people are typically presented as static and sequestered under museum glass. Wendy Red Star reanimates these objects by visually contextualizing them within their original purpose,” says Kirsty Buchanan, curator of collections and exhibitions at the Rockwell Museum.
Buchanan explains that Red Star brought digital copies of the catalog cards to her Apsáalooke reservation during their annual Crow Fair in Montana along the banks of the Little Bighorn River. “Members gather for a daily parade symbolizing the moving of camp, an action that expresses the deep-rooted culture of movement in Apsáalooke society. Families put on traditional dress and display their horses during rituals that recall the historic migrations from summer to winter camps,” she says.
Wendy Red Star, Accession series, 2019, pigment print on archival paper, 19 x 29". Catalog Number 1938.52. Clara S. Peck Fund.
In Red Star’s works, Buchanan adds that the figures are isolated from their original backgrounds, allowing the viewer to focus on “the exquisite details of Crow artistry: the fringe of one rider’s sleeve, beadwork [and] blankets covered in geometric patterns, the intriguing way horses and cars are adorned similarly, women in elk tooth dresses and men wearing feather back bustles and breast plates.” Buchanan continues, “More than a historical study, Red Star’s project weaves a story of survival and ultimately a joyful celebration of culture that challenges marginalization. Red Star offers an alternative lens to view Crow Fair images, and a very real reminder that this cultural production is continuing to evolve. While so many dominant narratives are busily flattening Native identities and culture, Red Star is working to expand, personalize and humanize through asserting her own particular perspective.”
Wendy Red Star, Accession series, 2019, pigment print on archival paper, 29 x 19". Catalog Number 1941.30.1. Clara S. Peck Fund. 2021.2.2. The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY.
Objects in Motion runs May 28 through September 5 and will serve as the centerpiece for the Rockwell Museum’s annual theme SPARK! From Inspiration to Creation.
May 28-September 5, 2022
Objects in Motion: Wendy Red Star’s Accession Series
The Rockwell Museum
111 Cedar Street, Corning, NY 14830
(607) 937-5386, www.rockwellmuseum.org
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