"You don't
have to make things easy for them," says Red Star about her
new exhibition for children at MASS MoCA.
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Wendy Red Star in "Winter
Thesis" (photo by Kaelan Burkett)
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When multimedia artist Wendy
Red Star went to public school in Montana as a kid, she wasn't
taught any Apsáalooke (Crow) history. She and many of her
classmates were of Crow descent and lived on the nearby Crow reservation.
Still, the stories of her tribe and names of her ancestors were
completely excluded from the curriculum.
Red Star has spent her artistic career researching what the public
school system failed to give her: her history. Combining knowledge
of the Crow tribe from within the reservation as well as external
archival sources, she uses her rich cultural heritage as visual
source material in the hope that it is carried into the future.
Historic photographs of an 1880 Crow Peace Delegation that negotiated
land rights with the US government, for example, are annotated with
red pen; she's transformed drawings of animals by Peelatchiwaaxpáash
(Chief Medicine Crow) into stuffed toy dolls; a series of self-portraits
shows her dressed in Native American clothing and set against comically
plastic backgrounds that are meant to look authentic.
Red Star creates images Native Americans using humor, her personal
connection, and the gravitas of deep research helping viewers
better understand the past and present of Native American people.
Usually these viewers are adults, but as of this month a new solo
exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS
MoCA)'s Kidspace is bringing Wendy Red Star to kids. Whether
or not the show's school-aged visitors return to the classroom
at the end of the summer, Red Star's work certainly enhances
the standardized American history textbook.
Red Star and I spoke about Apsáalooke: Children of the
Large-Beaked Bird over Zoom last week, while she was in Montana
visiting family. This interview has been lightly condensed and edited
for clarity.
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Installation view of
the exhibition Wendy Red Star: Apsáalooke: Children
of the Large-Beaked Bird at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary
Art (image courtesy MASS MoCA)
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Karen Chernick: How did this show come about?
Wendy Red Star: I had an exhibition at the Newark Museum
that opened in early 2019, and Laura [Thompson, the curator of MASS
MoCA Kidspace] came and we started the conversation there. They
had a political theme in mind for 2020 it's a political
year, a chance to vote so I pitched to her that I've
been doing a lot of research on my tribe and our relation with the
US government.
I think it would be really wonderful to present that history to
children because when I grew up, I attended public school in Hardin,
which is a town that's surrounded by the Crow reservation and
once was part of the Crow reservation. We never talked about anything
having to do with Crow history, even though the student population
was a mix of Crow kids and white rancher kids. So, to me, it's
always been a fantasy to have that history presented in some way.
Then we tried to figure out a way to best engage that age demographic,
for the exhibition.
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Installation view of
the exhibition Wendy Red Star: Apsáalooke: Children
of the Large-Beaked Bird (image courtesy MASS MoCA)
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KC: This exhibition is different from others you've
participated in, because it's geared toward kids. Has this
target audience made you present your work differently?
WRS: I actually had great practice, because I collaborated
with my daughter starting at the age of seven. (She retired herself
at age 11, she's 13 now. So we had a good four-year run!) She
really opened my eyes to how receptive children are, and that you
don't have to make things easy for them. They get it. That
was a big eye-opener, and a great entry point for myself to approach
working with the future generation.
We did a lot of tours together and she made a body of her own work
based on the 1880 Crow Delegation piece. There are things that were
totally influenced by working with this seven-year-old and thinking
about that project. Another reason why I thought it was a perfect
fit for Kidspace, is because there are activities where kids are
given the English translations of Crow words that pertain to animals.
That's something that I came up with together with my daughter,
Beatrice.
KC: Is that activity being presented for the first time
at this show?
WRS: We actually did a little test run, knowing that I had
this exhibition coming. Beatrice and I did a test exhibition at
King School, which is an elementary at Portland, Oregon it's
a social practice project where they've taken
over King School and added a museum and the kids curate exhibitions,
and they bring in different artists. They invited me to show work,
and I pitched this idea of how do you make children make drawings
from the literal translations of Crow words?
I'll give you an example. We didn't have pigs in Crow
country, and when they were introduced, the Crow word is daxpitcheeúuxe.
The literal translation is a deer and a bear. So we wouldn't
tell the kids that it was a pig, we'd just say: can you draw
something that looks like a deer and a bear? And they came up with
these really amazing illustrations. I can't say the Crow word,
but for monkey the literal translation is dog and man, so: can you
make a drawing that looks like a dog and man? And they produced
these drawings and we exhibited those.
And really, it's about perception, and perceiving the world,
and translation. I really liked that idea, especially going back
to relations with the US government and how Crows are thinking and
a Crow perspective, and how European settlers are thinking and this
other perception. And then coming together and that gray area there,
to me, is fascinating. That was the thinking about having the kids
make these drawings, or making them think a little bit in a Crow
perspective but also coming from a very colonial well, we've
all grown in a very colonial settler structure.
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Installation view of
the exhibition Wendy Red Star: Apsáalooke: Children
of the Large-Beaked Bird (image courtesy MASS MoCA)
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KC: How are you hoping kids respond to your work and
this show?
WRS: For me, it's very important that the ancestors
that are presented in the exhibition are really thought of as people.
And relatable people. I try to do that by writing
about them directly on their image, or by making them life-sized
and having an opportunity to walk up to them. And really humanizing
them, because Native people have been dehumanized so much or made
into this mythical part of the West that doesn't exist. My
hope is that there's a human connection that the kids can make
and relate to.
KC: Are you hoping that the show helps kids question
the colonial version of history that they're usually taught
at school?
WRS: Absolutely. And I think that's kind of the in,
right? To see these ancestors as humans, first. The next step would
then be to recognize that this
is a history that they aren't encountering, and they have
to encounter it at Mass MoCA, you know? There were talks of the
show traveling and just getting out there. Hopefully that continues.
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Installation view of
the exhibition Wendy Red Star: Apsáalooke: Children
of the Large-Beaked Bird (image courtesy MASS MoCA)
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KC: What are you working on now do you have any
exhibitions or projects on the horizon?
WRS: Yes, I'm doing another historical project that's
based on the Indian Congress that happened in Omaha, Nebraska in
1898. It was one of the largest gatherings of Native people at the
time, and it was for the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.
My connection to wanting to investigate that piece of history was
that a group of Crows traveled to Omaha, and were photographed by
this photographer named [Frank] Rinehart.
Through that connection, Rinehart actually came to my reservation.
I'm literally staring out the window of my dad's place,
looking at the very spot in which Rinehart photographed my community.
It's kind of incredible, just to piece those together.
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Installation view of
the exhibition Wendy Red Star: Apsáalooke: Children
of the Large-Beaked Bird (image courtesy MASS MoCA)
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He took over 500 images of all the Native people who came to the
Indian Congress. I've been so fascinated by it, and the really
amazing thing was that he actually put down a lot of the individual
peoples' names and their tribal affiliation. I have all these
prints of the portraits, some are sitting and some are full-body
portraits. I've printed as many as I can and I'm cutting
them out of the image, and they'll stand on their own. Each
display stand will have a tribal group together with their names,
because I just want to see them all together.
I wanted to make that large gathering again and have their names
there so that whoever walks into that space gets an epic feeling
of the Indian Congress. And there'll be another section where
I photograph exactly where Rinehart photographed here on my reservation,
and include those cutouts.
My fingers are very sore from cutting
out all these figures but it's amazing to see all the different
Native nations, and look at their outfits, and look at the different
expressions. It's been a wonderful thing to do during this
time of pandemic and being home, and a great opportunity to connect
with this piece of history.
Wendy Red
Star: Apsáalooke: Children of the Large-Beaked Bird continues
at MASS MoCA (1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, Massachusetts) through
spring 2021. The exhibition was curated by Laura Thompson. The museum
is currently open, though advanced, timed tickets are required.
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