First Americans
Related: About this foruma museum exhibit in Salem Massachusetts
Yesterday I and my wife went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. One of the exhibits there (for a while longer) is titled "Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art". The pieces shown are mostly modern, often of modern materials, by Native artists from various tribes. A few are hundreds of years old.
I was surprised to see an abstract bronze sculpture - by an Apache artist! Another constructed a large whale skeleton - out of pieces of plastic lawn chairs. Indian heritage had clearly influenced the art, even though much was made from "non-Indian" materials. There was a cartoon of Uncle Sam fastening a chain to the ankle of an Indian, with a caption something like "after two or three hundred years, you won't even feel it" (I don't remember exactly how it went).
I was surprised to see a decorated seashell several hundreds of years old, because it had been part of a burial. I had thought Indians strongly objected to digging up and displaying such artifacts.
The exhibit is at the museum until April 29. So if you are in the Boston area, you may want to hurry and see the exhibit while you still can.
http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/135-shapeshifting_transformations_in_native_american_art includes some short videos about some of the art, and discussions by the artists.
TlalocW
(15,674 posts)That there are museums in Salem that don't deal with the witch trials and the supernatural...
TlalocW
flyingfysh
(1,990 posts)It was a major seaport, with ships going to all parts of the world. The museum has lots of goods from trade with China. Hawthorne worked there as a customs agent. The House of Seven Gables has a terrific view of the harbor where sailing ships used to arrive.
Another exhibit is an entire 200-year-old Chinese house, moved from China.