Bedia's Stirring Wheel.
|
Title |
Bedia's Stirring Wheel. |
|
Creator |
Durham, Jimmie (American sculptor, performance artist, and video artist, born 1940) |
|
Date |
1985 |
|
Cultural Context |
American
North American
Native American |
|
Style/Period |
Contemporary
Postmodern |
|
Subject |
Mixed media
Symbols
Discrimination
Race discrimination
Race relations
Racism
Ethnic groups
Ethnic stereotypes
Indigenous peoples
Cultural relations
History
Irony
Fantasy
Archaeology
Excavation
Hides & skins
Steering wheels |
|
Description |
"Durham's symbolic recoding of the imagery of modern America in the terms of its native Indians is interesting in relation to Joseph Beuys's use of Indian iconography for purposes of symbolic retribution. As a modernist, Beuys assumed his work could possess a certain universality of meaning. By contrast, Durham's 'postmodern' gesture acknowledges ambiguities of translation in the way it treats its subject. Beuys, of course, was European whilst Durham actually came from an American Indian background." (Caption, p.221); "For artists of mixed racial origin there was an urgent need to discover their own voices. […] An exemplary figure here is the Cherokee Indian artist Jimmie Durham. Actively involved in the American-Indian Movement during the later 1970s, Durham has since produced objects, performances, and installations which wittily expose the mingling of mythologization and historical disavowal that characterize white US attitudes towards North American Indians. In Bedia's Stirring Wheel (1985) a car's steering-wheel is wrapped in hides and star-patterned cloth and embellished with animal trophies, producing an ironic hybrid of 'primitivist' ritual object and Western 'Conceptualist' readymade. A playful text accompanying the work proposes that it has been unearthed by a Cuban archaeologist, Jose Bedia, during an excavation of the 'White Planes' in 3290 AD. Bedia identifies the find as 'a symbol of Office for the Great White Father' who, standing behind it, made 'pronouncements and stirring speeches'. A form of symbolic revenge on the West's technological triumphalism is envisaged." (Excerpt, p.222) |
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Material |
Mixed media
Found objects
Hide
Cloth
Animal material
Steering wheels |
|
Measurements |
121.9 x 48.3 cm |
|
Work Type |
Sculpture
Mixed media |
|
Source |
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.221, fig.115) |
|
Rights |
Photo Fred Scruton, New York. Collection of Karen & Andy Stillpass, Cincinnati. Reproduced in Hopkins courtesy of Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York. |
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Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
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Format |
image/jpeg |
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Digital File Name |
VRC 827-15.jpg |
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Rating |
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