- Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara • Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Stereotype… The Curtis, ceramic, leather, feather
Stereotypes References to Native American Culture through external sources. Stereotype: The Curtis Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) set out to take ethnographic photographs of Native Americans before they ‘disappeared’. Indulging his own creative whims as a photographs and manipulated the image by posing people and objects to reflect his vision. In producing these photographs and sharing them with the mass colonial population, his photos became source material for Native American culture, which was not a correct or truthful image. Through these photographs Curtis perpetuated the idea of the ‘noble savage.’ The famous Curtis photo of Sitting Bull inspires this piece. In order to supply the demand of his viewers back east, of the ‘wild Indian’ covered in feathers and buckskin, Curtis manipulated the feathers atop Sitting Bulls head to be seen, pointing them straight up. Now the image of feathers upright on the head are a cultural icon. This image of Sitting Bull is so prominent in deciding Native American history that the image is even perpetuated in Native American culture today. This piece reflects on the stereotyped Native American culture as dictated or described by anthropological or external sources such as the photograph of Edward S. Curtis.
Stereotype… The Barrymore, ceramic, fabric, leather, feather
Stereotype… The Luger, ceramic mixed media
Stereotype… The Luger, ceramic mixed media, back view