When you think of your cultural and
ethnic identity, is there a piece of cloth – a sown or painted
tapestry, a beaded headband, a knitted cable sweater, a special quilt
made by the matriarch in your family – that helps you honor and
celebrate who you are? Cloth and/or textiles are often overlooked as
key cultural touchstones in modern day society, but they are the
focus of Maggie Thompson’s solo exhibition at All My Relations
Gallery. She uses textiles to ask important questions about family,
identity and culture. As a Native American woman (Fond du Lac
Ojibwe), Thompson uses this show to “dig deeper into the notions of
her identity focusing on issues of cultural appropriation and Native
authenticity through the rigid ideas of blood quantum and
stereotyping.”
Her show is socially powerful with
hints of nostalgia, deep-rooted sadness, and an anger that bubbles up
along the edges. All the pieces showcase Thompson’s talents when it
comes to color, patterns, and fabric types. She also pushes
boundaries when it comes to textiles incorporating multimedia
elements – screen-printing photographs, gold and silver threads,
foam cookie cutters and also cornhusks and bottle caps.
The artist was initially an
architectural student at the Rhode Island School of Design, so there
are elements of her weaving and knitting that certainly draw from
this, like straight lines and geometric patterns intentionally
building a whole from smaller parts. Thompson recalls feeling like an
artist even when she was very young, long before her textile degree
from RISD.
“I was always involved in the arts
growing up, whether it was taking classes, going to museums, or just
working at home with my mom," she said. "In 4th grade I
transferred to the Minnesota Waldorf School, and it was there that I
first learned how to knit in my handworking class.”
She later graduated from the Perpich
Center for Arts Education high school, but college was where she
realized, “I had a story to tell and therefore I felt compelled to
reach out to people to start dialogue through art.”
The opening reception for Where I Fit
last week featured a live mannequin on a pedestal modeling a piece of
clothing created to conjure a jingle dress and also exotic dancewear.
To interact with the model was to feel seduced, but to also realize
the cultural prostitution that is placed upon Native American women.
The title, “Pocahotness,” was derived from a nickname that some
college friends gave Thompson at school. A number of pieces in the
exhibit that speak to the stereotype of the “authentic Indian.”
Some touching and personal works come
from Thompson’s relationship to her father. She said that she’s
compelled to create works that deal with saying good-bye, mourning,
letting go and being. Finding where she fits. “My art helps me to
sort out things I have a hard time talking about, and helps to
channel my energy.”
The gallery at All My Relations Arts
“honors and strengthens relationships between contemporary American
Indian artists and the living influence of preceding generations.”
It is an arts & cultural project of the Native American Community
Development Institute (NACDI). The gallery shares the building with
the administrative offices of NACDI and also a coffee shop.
Jay Bad Heart Bull, president &
CEO of NACDI, ensures it’s a welcoming space for all and greeted
guests as they arrived for the show’s opening reception as though
everyone was an old friend. Dyani White Hawk Polk, arts project
manager for the organization, introduced the artist and the show. She
noted that Maggie Thompson initially submitted a piece, “The Weight
on my Shoulders” to be juried at an earlier show, "Ded
Unk’unpi/We Are Here," and that piece was then purchased by the
Minnesota Historical Society to be part of their permanent
collection.
A panel discussion on authenticity,
appropriation, and the arts is scheduled for Friday, April 25, from 6
to 8 p.m., also at the gallery. Panelists include artist Maggie
Thompson, local writer Sasha Houston Brown and founder of Beyond
Buckskin Boutique, Jessica Metcalfe.
This show is not to be missed. If you
haven’t been to All My Relations on the American Indian Cultural
Corridor in Minneapolis, or even if you have—the time to go (again)
is now. You’ll be compelled to reflect on your own cultural
heritage, relationship with parents and where you fit amongst it all.
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