Dr. Christian Ayne Crouch: Indigenous Life
Jeffrey Gibson, an artist of Choctaw and Cherokee descent, incorporates elements of Native American art and craft into his practice, creating a rich visual and conceptual dialogue between his work and the histories that inform it. In Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks, he selected objects from our collection, which are presented alongside his recent work. The resulting multimedia, floor-to-ceiling installation questions long-held institutional categorizations and representations of Indigenous peoples and Native American art. It also provides a context for Gibson’s work and acts as a contemporary lens through which to see historical works by both Indigenous and non-Native peoples.
The Resource Room in the exhibition When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks celebrates the daily life and lived experiences of Indigenous people in a way that rejects the colonial gaze, which romanticized westward expansion and depicted Native Americans as part of a vanishing frontier. Presented alongside historic and contemporary artworks, a selection of photographs, maps, vocabulary cards, and other materials from the Brooklyn Museum's archives pull back the lens of white male anthropologists and art collectors, offering insight on collecting practices and allowing Indigenous people's experiences understanding of themselves to take precedence.
Commentary by Dr. Christian Ayne Crouch, co-organizer of the exhibition.
Video by Anne Sofie Nørskov, Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo Video Fellow, produced by Rachel Lewis
