Exhibition Video: Discovering American Indian Art

we're very excited your concerned to know have this week exhibition and i think the title discovering american indian part says it all uh... we wish to convey to the music uh... and understanding and appreciation of the diversity credible artistic ability of the native american people's her north america this is partisans fundamental mission which is to develop awareness and an appreciation of the earth and its people so this district clearly into it were also extremely appreciative of the on a couple who loaders these pieces from their collection uh... craig heller deep about interested in the subject and they're excited the suggestion uh... share that uh... with the public it's been a huge success uh... lenin's sprinkled with here uh... persistent classes as well so it's it's really exciting educational experience we're very appreciative and a very fortunate got to have to scholars on the department had apology faculty who've served as curator's of this exhibition uh... selecting the piece is writing the labels and and clearly i think conveying are called seeds that it uh... has to say uh... doctor my clothing and a doctor gerald troll will be taking you through this uh... exhibition and focusing on some of their uh... favorite pieces and pieces of significance uh... the exhibit uh... that we carry uh... is drawn from a remarkable private collection uh... amassed over a period of some thirty years by it very adventuresome couple uh... in tennessee when invited uh... to curate the exhibit uh... general show and i were confronted with a number of problems first uh... the title of the that and we chose discovering american indian art and this reflects the couple's uh... lateral journey discoveries they traveled throughout the united states and canada uh... purchasing items from dealers uh... native american artist so discover and american indian art is reflection of their travels and their educational growth and the material culture of north america's indian peoples approximately seventy five optics are opened for public viewing the exhibit moreover dropper shoreline i weren't charged with developing various scenes three which the pieces in the exhibit could be a best displayed in interpreted by the viewing public there are six primary themes in the exhibit uh... the first of users you can see in this map behind us uh... reflecting the great cultural diversity of native american art your own yet uh... doctor logan is referring to know how i cant apologists a uh... organize uh... uh... information about american indians and largely this is done in terms of work all culture areas and there are attend generally recognized cultures in native north america and the collection represents all of those uh... culture as some uh... of course are better represented than others and then once we have a right identified on the cd uh... different culture as then we selected pieces from the question to reflect uh... other things so these themes going from artistic diversity raw materials contact and trade beadwork functional roles and lastly indigenous ation uh... determine are mine the sense of completion to the amounts to a person of the man for all time natural items on the flight and the reason though that my dad that the uh... the items in the exhibit uh... uh... most of them the from the uh... twentieth-century right in the collection there are some very fine piece is that uh... date to the nineteenth century the earliest material in these are the dates to around the eighteen twenties there are a few items from the uh... eighteen sixties eighteen eighties and then uh... more contemporary materials uh... from the uh... uh... twentieth century when doctor logan and i constructed is that what we want to do uh... have the viewer i get a sense of the context how the objects and analyst for this reason and that we included a historical photographs of where we could alongside the exhibits and that many of these photographs uh... were done by uh... edward curtis in the early part of the twentieth century views pretty famous for photographing american insert throughout the western united states unfortunately here at the university there is a uh... complete uh... collection of his portfolio photographs which we were able to borrow from the museum and incorporate those uh... alongside the objects o uh... a person viewing united can actually see how a native person my views that a object or warn that object or the context of the use of that object and i think this adds a great deal to the uh... to the uh... experience of the of that they're all too frequently and exhibits uh... you live the human dimension you have natural things from on walls they set their silent and we wanted incorporate these historic photographs uh... to bridge the measure all items to the people's who produce to use them and i think many times the cases and that we have here with photographs do exactly that uh... navajo weaver at her home and then the strong powder navajo rug uh... recent criminal code of conduct and and and plains indian holding a sacred five points on the one hundred so not control and i'm phil in uh... quite good about the ability to integrate the human element into the through use of these uh... photographs is one thing is abundantly clear you do in the items contained in this example and that is the exceptional diverse range of natural items used by the native peoples simply consider three bags this plot to a bag lakota pipe buried and the met matt bag over here exceptionally diverse although they all held in functional role quite similar in that of story these were containers yet the artistic treatment highly diverse on each three of these items of virtually all native american people's manufactured their baskets and of course the cherokee people here in the southeast with some made some of the finest basket so that we know of any and to the the day they continue to uh... uh... make these basket so this is a fairly contemporary co was call a double we've basket where there's actually two walls to the basket these are very very funny made and uh... people at the day's as i said continue to make the same and they can even be purchased uh... by people who uh... are interested and quieting things like this the first thing has to do with tough uh... the raw material from which uh... different uh... uh... artifacts are are constructed this would include things like ivory and phone and uh... on that wall stone and and variety of raw materials the sacred plight uh... this is they look older specimen dating to about eighteen seventy decorator would die porcupine quills redlands mallard uh... dot feathers and then the bowl the pipe is made of kaplan i tape red colored stone current in southern minnesota we have the two pieces of the pipes separate when joining they become sacred and with the rising smoke the prayers of the people are carried to the upper sky world indians in the southeast part of the united states became eminently skilled in the construction of claws sheriffs dresses and skirts much of the material they acquired from items discarded by whites they would recap them and then very carefully so them together somewhat patchwork stop to make these uh... beautiful and very very distinctive forms of dress as we see here and this shirt uh... dating to about nineteen forty and this is sentinels in origin native americans are on the northwest coast of the of north america uh... manufactured capes and baskets and uh... have such as this sounds bruce a group or cedar park and of course uh... the northwest coast being a very rainy these hats uh... uh... were very useful in some cases as shown in the car is image the hats were painted uh... and the uh... images painted on the house represents a crests or spirits that were associated with that particular social groups amongst the hyatt data link it kwok you'll and other uh... people of the northwest coast next part of the senate has to do with um... contact with the contact and trade and uh... as doctor logan myself about study can uh... of radio obviously when native americans uh... were in contact with one another so they acquired raw materials and different ideas about the construction and style a different obvious from one another and of course once uh... european contact occurred uh... then native americans also began to borrow uh... ideas and borrow uh... things from uh... from europeans uh... almeida for the people's constructed elaborate costumes and rest for a very a ceremonial purposes in this case we have a uh... young lady from the uh... uh... you mattel a tribe of uh... uh... the columbia plateau region in the northwestern part of north america his she's wearing a wedding veil over the top of her head and here we have an example of awaiting bill that's for sure identical to the one shown in the car is ah... what makes this a particularly interesting object is all the different materials that were gathered of both the uh... locally available materials as well as materials that were uh... purchased or uh... uh... traded for to construct this fail so for example includes uh... glass trade beads and then these white dent alien shells these these are type of uh... uh... shell that a soprano in the end northwestern part of north america and then we have these uh... calorie shells that would have been traded and and then there are uh... some little teeny tiny uh... brass bells and then these various round objects one of those is a chinese calling and the others are brasser arcade tokens that were acquired uh... by the uh... native people in the to uh... helped construct this uh... wedding veil belgrade ingenuity native american artists of taking items uh... gathered through so purchase or trade and then the utah as you know consistent with their own culture and artistic traditions we're apart of this morning though we have a a number of sewing temples that have been perforated and strong uh... forty courtroom purposes on this morning that nak uh... of our themes tis the beadwork plus being sought perhaps more so than any other trained eyes enjoyed the greatest value among native americans beads and quietly were trip from italy to respond across the atlantic uh... to the united states and then shipped out west and trading variety of different venues uh... to indian peoples lee women and these trouble nations became eminently skill at uh... this craft of applying beans glass beads uh... to various colleges or later uh... to trade cloth soviet working as something that you've seen and virtually all of the closure areas mathematica uh... here we have uh... two are what are referred to as a hot the prospects in the uh... uh... the reason they're called octopus pages because uh... as you can see in the competitors that they have these long tabs and they hits a reminds people of uh... delays of or not because of course are actually eight of them because there's two behind uh... when and where people start calling them octopus bags is not quite known but uh... bags like this were thought to originally been them a data for and that the long tabs represent where the uh... uh... legs of the animal were left on the back and then of course in contact earned contact rate one native american start making these out of uh... clock they continued that design of course uh... use cloth and beads dashing manufacturer the object and what's interesting about these that particular kinds of bags is that they apparently were first uh... uh... made it in the eastern north america and in the style of an idea uh... the bags uh... of doctor lovell we'll talk about diffused across most of north america yet as an artifact type of these bags are extremely interesting they appear first him uh... historic ridiculous of uh... whites observing india's with these very distinctive diaper bags in the installation of canada in the sixteen hundreds uh... with the expansion of the for trade further west and north of through canada this travel bag diffused from group to group eventually going into uh... southern alaska and these bags here a tribute to this point it uh... southern alaska the there as the bags of course uh... or they idea the bags diffuse across the northern north america each native group added its own distinctive touches so that mama follies bags can be recognized to a specific uh... uh... ethnic group uh... and and for example the reason we know that particular this bag is twenty k is because of the very distinctive fraud motif and also some of the characteristics of the detail of the way the bead work is done which is very distinctive to twenty cats so even though the bags all look superficially the same uh... there are fairly easy to recognize uh... as to what part of north america and they were uh... originally constructed functional roles is another of our primary unsub things in the exhibit by functional roles such things as utilitarian roles uh... storage bags or baskets uh... ritual items or ceremonial items here the exquisite pieces of uh... northwest coast of wooden masks uh... religion uh... been native american church gender status uh... even toys played a prominent roll in socializing children and uh... v activities associated with their daily life is adult this is a spectacular specimen create uh... eastern canada uses a hood uh... for a woman it would be worn out on a daily basis but for only special occasions there waiting for example amount of work are required to decorate this indeed of is really hard for me to adequately uh... exploring convey it took the uh... constantly skilled beads worker uh... thousands of hours of uh... daily work uh... to complete this uh... spectacular beaded hood of these moccasins with the beauty of souls uh... common among the local river was consumed are known as honoree moccasins of the woman who created the want to see extra step of being the sole were work additional work was that you have to look to the person who receive these as a gift list of from honoring moccasins extra work to be work is honoring recipient of these markets and many historic terror that i've seen uh... shows signs of wear we also have photographs of man are worrying these types of moccasins uh... with this all the people told this is a uh... particularly interesting northwest coast at uh... that's a tribute to the uh... then that the people as you can see it's made out of uh... woven and cedar bark and then will one uh... into the pattern of having these uh... he needs is a way also these are called mucking because they were first observed by james cook when he visited the northwest coast in the late eighteenth century and eighty five in a moment keno was wearing one and they've been known as uh... has uh... mccain and sarah says and then the image here is an actual eighteenth-century up degrading associated with the uh... uh... cook expedition that was done by a man a man john webber he was the artist with a cook expedition here you can see in oakville woman wearing a hat for the late eighteenth century that's for sure identical to the hat here that we have on display that was made in the end nineteen seventy five pwrwoman northwest coast people are famous for their uh... construction of of riding a ever mass that they use in ceremonies and and healing and a variety of other out uh... kinds of activities and of course when the europeans first uh... came to the northwest coast uh... the they deserved a native people making and using these massive very elaborate ways over the course of uh... a contact in particularly uh... in the and nineteenth and early twentieth century of the canadian government was very concerned about the activities that native people were using how these mass and and the ebay en masse on ebay and many of the uh... ceremonies and it was in the early twentieth century that uh... mass makers like uh... willy seaweed and uh... mongol martin and others began to revitalize the mass making tradition and of course today than it is shown by this mask and others in the exit a contemporary native americans in that the northwest coast make these mass and of course mostly their use now for a decorative purposes although many of the uh... ceremonies and the traditions at the master were once used and have also been revitalized this particular mask is uh... as a part of the a winner ceremonial uh... activities of the uh... of the kwok utl people and this is part of what our sometimes referred to as campbell dances in this particular umass represents a campbell istic bird and and the bird has is very long beak so as literally the calm down and uh... hamari persons i head open and he the persons brains these these ceremonies are largely initiation ceremonies that are conducted uh... during the uh... of the winter months a part of the costume in the using this mass is that the mask there the where would literally put this over his head you can see the cedar bark this would cover his head and shoulders and he'd be wearing a caper costume privately that call for cedar bark and then d the bigger the masses at actually move also it can move up and down and of course individual wearing a mask as well as many other people wearing similar massive right about our man sitting ceremonies would literally carry these things around and can that very elaborate uh... dances and ceremonies and that there are uh... numerous historical accounts of how spectacular these were and how in many ways they were uh... scary and uh... uh... very uh... uh... animated so that uh... uh... people uh... really enjoyed this uh... as well as uh... uh... participate in these important uh... ceremony this is a possible bag uh... that term uh... refers to vocoder phrase a bad for every possible thing was used to store personal possessions this bag is particularly interesting at least in nineteen ninety and was made by medical doctor by the name of com artists the airlock loader the big working that we see here faithfully copies in earlier tradition where and scenes of battles were abated onto garments uh... to pipe bag so to shield covers here we see him anuar lakota lawyer was the father bonnet mounted on his horse charging an enemy and we know the ethnic identity or tribal identity of the displaying an army uh... he is a croat the pompadour hair style salute stahl necklace and then the lower panel leggings has should also point out the forces tale has been bob and that was a universal symbol on the plan is that the man riding that horse was on the war path this bag shows very forcefully that indian peoples here are very much with us today they have filed all cultures and their artistic traditions uh... continue strong and there's the allows the of the six is indigenous vation this is a process whereby native peoples would borrow items and ideas from whites and then incorporate them into their own culture and freeze them aesthetically according to their own tribes traditions this is a spectacular specimen of all the pieces on exhibit is this is perhaps my favorite it's a small best for a young lakota boyd and is in a moment to see readily it is embellished with american flag this is eight paradoxes of uh... great proportion simply ask why would a press peoples american indians specifically the lakota or western suit why would they incorporate the preeminent symbol of their oppressor the u_s_ government and the army and incorporate that stumble into their applied ethnic art art historians have suggested that the flag represents the ongoing warrior image i disagree uh... this was made in eighteen ninety the very last thing the woman who made this for her young child would want to convey two white power holders is that bozo young boy his family were hostile to the government rather this symbolize the indians who deeply zire to live to co-exist peacefully with whites certainly paradoxical eighteen nineteen this is a year that the army slaughtered uh... so many innocent indians at wounded knee we're very excited here continues into have receipt exhibition uh... and i think the title discovering american indian part says it all we wish to convey to the news and visitor uh... and understanding and appreciation of the diversity and the incredible artistic ability of of the native american people's of north america this is part of the museum's fundamental mission which is to develop an awareness an appreciation of the earth and it's people's so this fits very clearly into it we're also extremely appreciative of the on couple who loaders these pieces from their collection uh... they haven't deep abiding interest in the subject and we're very excited when when we suggested that uh... the share that uh... with with the public huge success we've had been any schoolchildren in here uh... university students in classes as well cells it's it's at least exciting educational experience i hope you enjoyed this uh... presentation of rediscovering american india art uh... this is the type of exhibition at the present does uh... three times a year all of them uh... designed to to meet our nation uh... to educate the public and develop a awareness and a deeper appreciation of the world and it's uh... many many diverse cultures in people's uh... canoes and is uh... on the university of tennessee campus it's free and open to the public and we're opened three hundred and fifty seven days out of the year we have both permanent and temporary exhibitions and you'll find to be ethically asbury meaningful student yes jet

Channel: McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture

Views: 48,986

Keywords: American Indian, Art, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, McClung Museum

Id: GK2rPcXmJ9k

Length: 28min 2sec (1682 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 23 2013