Punk Ponk

Main Menu

  • British Punk Rock
  • American Punk Rock
  • Psychobilly
  • New Wave And Post-Punk
  • Accounts

Punk Ponk

Header Banner

Punk Ponk

  • British Punk Rock
  • American Punk Rock
  • Psychobilly
  • New Wave And Post-Punk
  • Accounts
American Punk Rock
Home›American Punk Rock›‘Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric’ features art forged from a ‘playful place’

‘Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric’ features art forged from a ‘playful place’

By Michael M. Pack
May 28, 2022
0
0
“The Body Electric”, Jeffrey Gibson, 2022, installation view at SITE Santa Fe. (Courtesy Shayla Blatchford)

Jeffrey Gibson’s work swirls with explosions of color, pattern, geometry and collage.

Jeffrey Gibson at work in his studio. (Courtesy of the Santa Fe website)

Acclaimed Mississippi Band of Choctaw/Cherokee artist presents his work in “Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric” at SITE Santa Fe through September 11 as part of an in-depth investigation. The exhibition reveals paintings, sculptures, a series of films, a live performance and a new mural illuminating the entrance hall and the main galleries of the building.

The work reflects Gibson’s identification as an outsider through a celebration of nonconformity incorporating his Native American identity, as well as his experiences in North Carolina, Korea, Germany, and Chicago.

Expecting a largely Indigenous influence, viewers often seem taken aback by the inclusion of such diverse backgrounds in her work.

His father was a civil engineer whose government career took him around the world.

“We moved around a lot,” Gibson said in a phone interview in the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York. “When he came back (from a trip), he brought me something related to art.”

Family members sewed and worked beadwork, traditions that regularly surfaced in the artist’s work.

Gibson’s college divisions “They Play Endlessly,” 2021, echo quilt squares.

“The phrase is something I used in a play in 2013,” Gibson said. “I grew up with an awareness of traumatic Aboriginal history. But I grew up in a family of love, music, listening to pop music in a van.

In Chicago, Gibson worked at the Field Museum, helping tribal delegations sort through collections under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It was there that he discovered the flourishing of Aboriginal motifs in the museum’s archives.

“I spent a lot of time in collections,” he said. “I didn’t want to copy anything that was in that museum because those models belonged to those people.”

He also counts geometry, Op art, design, fashion and psychedelia as influences, as well as punk rock and house music.

“They come from a very playful place,” he said. “It’s fun, but as an Indian, I want to feel empowered to create my own designs. When I’m in the studio, I try to operate and work in a game state.”

The multimedia collage “Pahl Lee”, 2021, evolved from Gibson’s reaction to paintings of 19th century Native Americans by Elbridge Ayer Burbank.

“While I was working with them, they made me very sad, very angry,” he said. “We don’t learn anything about them. These people were oppressed. They had been moved and told what to wear. I decided to use them almost as a brand.

‘Red Sunset’, ‘Desert Sky’ and ‘Red Moon’, Jeffrey Gibson, 2021. (Courtesy Shayla Blatchford)

“Firebelly”, Jeffrey Gibson (born in 1972), 2021. (Courtesy of the Santa Fe Site)

“Untitled Figure I”, Jeffrey Gibson, 2022. (Courtesy of Shayla Blatchford)

Jeffrey Gibson, “She Never Dances Alone”, 2020. (Courtesy Shayla Blatchford.

“Pahl Lee”, Jeffrey Gibson (born in 1972), 2021, mixed media collage. (Courtesy of the Santa Fe website)

Gibson crowned a commercially produced handbag hand-beaded by a native atop the piece.

“It’s not so much about Pahl Lee as it’s about aboriginal women,” he says. “The handbag is so cute.”

He took a similar approach to the Burbank portrait of Chief Black Coyote, adding beads, a vintage buckle and pin, and a belt to the collage.

A series of beaded birds are from the tribes of “fantasies” (pins and novelties) made as tourist souvenirs at Niagara Falls.

“I first saw them in the ’90s and they didn’t reflect a tribal aesthetic,” Gibson said.

The artist began his college education at the University of Maryland, but it only lasted a year.

“I was asked not to go back there,” he said. “I didn’t go to class; I was not a good student. I went on a trip; I followed the Grateful Dead.

He tried community college and was later accepted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and then to the Royal College of Art in London. His Mississippi-based tribe funded his room, board, and overseas tuition.

People sometimes assume that he had a traditional native upbringing, but both of his grandfathers were Baptist ministers.

“My parents were both Southern Baptists,” he said. “There have certainly been divisions in the family. Some members still practiced Sun Dances. My parents never pushed me back and forth. It was kind of a weird mix. I’ve always tried to be really honest about the percentage of those experiences that built me. I’m interested in how those things intersect with my being Aboriginal.

Related posts:

  1. the sounds of 2021 on shuffle
  2. Reigning Sound: a little more time with the Reigning Sound album review
  3. Bring It Back: Interview with Noah Cunane
  4. On Pastry-Making and the Punk Rock Appeal of Pop-ups

Recent Posts

  • The 10 Greatest Ska-Punk Albums Of All Time, Ranked From Worst To Best
  • Punks for Presents tickets on sale now
  • Fashion Insiders Share Their Favorite Raf Simons Collections
  • Regional Management Corp. (NYSE:RM) Director Basswood Capital Management, L. sells 63,093 shares
  • Former Impractical Jokers star is coming to El Paso in the new year

Archives

  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020

Categories

  • Accounts
  • American Punk Rock
  • British Punk Rock
  • New Wave And Post-Punk
  • Psychobilly
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy