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Artist/Maker
Jeffrey Gibson
(American, born 1972)
Date2017
MediumGlazed ceramic and repurposed ceramic figurines
DimensionsOverall: 17 3/4 × 15 × 10 3/4 in. (45.1 × 38.1 × 27.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object number2018.5
Not on view
DescriptionJeffrey Gibson created three ceramic assemblages for inclusion in his 2018 Wellin solo exhibition Jeffrey Gibson: This Is the Day, including this untitled work, which he donated to the museum. Gibson, who has Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, spent time in West Germany and South Korea as well as the US during his childhood. These influences, plus many others, converge in his multidisciplinary practice. This work features mass-produced tchotchkes alongside ceramic elements created by the artist based on Mississippian head pots. These effigy vessels shaped like human heads were created by Mississippian cultures (900 CE–1450 CE) who are most likely the ancestors of today’s Indigenous communities there. Gibson notes, “The faces on these pots are depictions of people who share facial features with me and other members of my family.” This ceramic assemblage also includes a number of found figurines made in Japan in the 1970s and ’80s that depict “Native Americans.” The artist has commented regarding his use of these representations of Indigenous peoples, “I want to reappropriate these images and objects to complicate the ways in which we think about them. Who owns what? Whose voice is whose? I want the viewer to consider issues of authenticity in relationship to aesthetic expectations.” Tentatively balanced, this pile of handmade and mass-produced ceramic elements depicting “Native Americans” has been dribbled with paint and presented to the viewer for consideration on a china plate.
Additional Details
Exhibition History
2018-19
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Jeffrey Gibson: This Is the Day," September 8 - December 9, 2018; traveled to: Austin, TX (The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin), July 14 - September 29, 2019 (cat., illus.).
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Jeffrey Gibson: This Is the Day," September 8 - December 9, 2018; traveled to: Austin, TX (The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin), July 14 - September 29, 2019 (cat., illus.).
Provenance
2018: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by gift of Jeffrey Gibson.
Markings
No markings noted.
Published References
Tracy L. Adler, JEFFREY GIBSON: THIS IS THE DAY, exh. cat. (Munich, London, New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel; Clinton, NY: Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, 2018), p. 199, 205, illus. p. 199.
Signature
Not signed.
Inscribed
No inscriptions noted.
Jeffrey Gibson
Date: 2015
Medium: Glass and plastic beads, tin cones, steel and brass studs, nylon fringe, and artificial sinew on repurposed wool army blanket, mounted on repurposed canvas punching bag with steel chain
Object number: 2016.5
Renée Stout
Date: 2008-10
Medium: Acrylic, latex paint, spray paint, plastic rhinestones, wood, glass, metal, varnish, collage, and found objects
Object number: 2016.2
Maria Poveka Martinez
Date: c. 1925-43
Medium: Terracotta
Object number: 2018.3.4
Kiki Smith
Date: 1995
Medium: Ink on handmade Japanese paper
Object number: 1998.3.5
Wendy Red Star
Date: 2016
Medium: Lithograph with inkjet print
Object number: 2016.18