The Princeton University Art Museum exhibition “Native America: In Translation” begins this week with a Zoom talk with artist and exhibition curator Wendy Red Star on Thursday, February 3, at 5:30 p.m., and a opening reception at PUAM’s satellite site Art on Hulfish on Saturday, February 5, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Wendy Red Star is an American artist of Crow heritage who mixes photography, performance, sculpture, and fiber to explore her cultural heritage, the way it has been perceived by Americans of European descent, and the role of Native American women.
Her work has been exhibited internationally and is part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Portland and Saint Louis art museums, Newark Museum, and numerous others.
In a previously published interview, Red Star shared the following thoughts:
“This country was founded on the eradication of Native people. We were also, paradoxically, used for tourism to promote the expansion of the West. Really what it all boils down to is humanity. I am always trying to show this in my work. We are human beings. For some reason, Native people are represented as eradicated, like in (white photographer) Edward Curtis’s The Vanishing Race (1904) project. It’s worked pretty well. I think people are surprised when they find a Native person because in the consciousness of America it’s like we don’t exist. We are these mythical creatures.
“The conqueror has set up an image of what Native people are. I always think of (Native American poet, performer, and activist) John Trudell and how he talks about the whole concept of The Indian as fiction, made up when the white people came. It’s true. We’ve lost our individuality as different nations. We were stereotyped into one thing.
I believe the role of Native photographers and artists in shaping this movement forward is to continue to draw attention and awareness
“(And) I come from a humorous background, not just my Crow side, but my Irish side as well. I’ve always seen things through this ironic lens. I’m always laughing. Humor is healing to me. It’s universal. People can connect with the work that way. Then they can be open to talking about race.”
Art on Hullfish, 11 Hulfish Street, Princeton. The exhibition is on view Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 5 p.m., through April 24. All programs are free. artmuseum.princeton.edu/calendar
Eileen Hohmuth-Lemonick’s “Traces of Time” exhibition at the Arts Council of Princeton concludes with a free closing reception on Saturday, February 5, from 3 to 5 p.m.
As the Princeton-based photographer known for her documentary and portrait work says in a statement, “This project started when I fractured my pelvis, was immobile, and could only get around with a walker. Friends sent bouquets and with severely limited motion, I began to photograph them on my kitchen table, finding beauty in their decay. From that initial work I continued in many directions: among them portraits of friends, flowers frozen in melting ice, images created with a scanner, combining live and dead flowers, painting on vegetation, and observing the passage of time in nature. I was fascinated by the emergence of the 17 year cicadas in Princeton (third time in my life), their short life cycle and their persistence to mate. Friends brought me dead birds, their fragility revealing the tragic beauty of mortality. Inevitably, all things will become one with the earth.”
Arts Council of Princeton, 102 Witherspoon Street. www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.
