Chicago artist Ted Garner recalls listening to David Bowie’s Space Oddity when it first came out. He was in his grandparents’ house–a log cabin–on a reservation. This sort of “surreal cultural assemblage is part of the state of being an American Indian,” he says.
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Garner grew up with American Indian art objects collected by his anthropologist parents and was exposed to modernist metal sculpture while working as an assistant for Mark Di Suvero. His painted wood sculptures are now in the show “Native Streams” at the Jan Cicero Gallery, along with work by 18 other Native American artists.
Joe Feddersen’s prints are based on abstract designs on traditional corn husk bags, which Feddersen once made. Lillian Pitt borrows figurative designs from corn husk bags and cedar baskets for her ceramic masks. Her faces’ pursed lips are a reference to childhood stories of “stick Indians that are always whistling: leading a good person to safety or whistling bad people deeper into the forest.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos / Michael Tropea.
