Art valuable experience to work collaboratively…in an environment where writing and research is typically a solitary endeavor.” Split into two sections and rife with academic discourse, the exhibit reveals and dissects a selection of images from Curtis’s “The North American Indian,” first acknowledging the misleading nature of the images, and then discussing what understanding an audience might gain from Curtis’s work, regardless of their historic accuracy. Convinced that Native North American
“Bear Belly” by Edward Curtis, part of the “Theatres of Memory” exhibit currently at University of Rochester’s Rare Books & Special Collections Library. PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
Illusion and perception “Theatres of Memory” “New Perspectives on Edward Curtis’s ‘The North American Indian’” Through April 15 Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester River Campus 275-4477, rochester.edu Mon-Fri 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat 11 am.-3 p.m. [ FEATURE ] BY REBECCA RAFFERTY
By now, many of us understand that when it comes to recorded histories, we cannot take anything for granted. History is nearly always penned and presented by the victors (or victorious cultures), who wish to be remembered in the best, most heroic of lights. Even individuals who are sympathetic to a situational underdog 28 City march 16-22, 2011
cannot truly portray, or even clearly see, the culture as it is, without including elements of their own particular motivation. But it is also a difficult matter to entirely disregard the intention of the subject, especially when confronted directly with the depth of expression. So is the case with the opus of photographer Edward Curtis, whose controversial documentation of the vanishing indigenous North American cultures is the focus of a fascinating new exhibit at the University of Rochester’s Rush Rhees Library. “Theatres of Memory” is the project of co-curators Carlie A. Fishgold and Alex B. Marr, students of the UR’s visual culture studies program, with commentary by UR faculty and Rare Books Library staff. “I’m especially interested in how we can see changing temporalities of indigenous communities in their visual production,” says Ph.D student Marr, adding that this project “was a rare and
cultures were on the brink of extinction, in 1904 Edward Curtis traveled from Seattle to New Mexico to begin work for what became his 20-volume opus “The North American Indian,” which sought to document, in photographic images and ethnographic writing, more than 80 ethnic groups residing west of the Mississippi River. Endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt and financed by J. P. Morgan, the three-decade undertaking resulted in 4,000 text pages, 1,500 bound images, and 720 folio sheets of loose photogravures. Curtis sold subscriptions to libraries and the wealthy, including Hiram Watson Sibley, who donated his copy to the University of Rochester. “Curtis’s photographic practice,” states the curators’ essay, sought “vestiges of ‘traditional’ Indian life to present a picture of pre-contact culture.” But arriving on the scene far too late for this, the photographer orchestrated scenes and spun false realities for his subjects, dressing them up in traditional garb from his trunk (photo pairing reveals the repeated use of certain articles, clothing that was at the time discouraged to hasten assimilation), posing them, and spinning nonexistent realities by omitting evidence of integration. One particular photo is retouched to burn out an alarm clock. In 1982, author Christopher Lyman accused Curtis’s oeuvre of flagrant “imperialist nostalgia,” states the curators’ essay. The first portion of the exhibit, “Deconstructing Stereotypes,” considers Lyman’s critique, with groupings of sepia tone photogravure prints that reveal the artist’s hand in posing the subjects wistfully reflecting or riding away, indicating the departure of their presence in this land. Some “contaminating traces of settler populations,” as the curators call them, remain in the images: beaded leather and exotic piercings preside above calico dresses, and headdresses incorporate Chinese coins, providing evidence of globalized commerce. In other images, warrior-men pose proudly with medallions bearing the images of American presidents, elements that “puncture the purity of Curtis’s vision,” according to the curators’ text. “‘Theatres of Memory’ is significant in that it
contributes to a more current discussion on
the legacy of Edward Curtis,” says Fishgold, “not drawing on the ‘invalidity’ of the work’s staged and altered nature, but instead drawing from the self-representation exercised by Curtis’s Native subjects.” In the second part of the show, the curators ask the viewer to consider, historic authenticity aside, treating the images “as historically embedded performances” consciously enacted by the subjects. Though the individuals presented in the photographs did not truly exist in the way that Curtis meant us to see, viewers may detect an authenticity nevertheless. “What is enacted in these photographs — these ‘theatres of memory’ — is not some imperialist fantasy,” argue the curators, “but rather the desires of indigenous peoples to maintain a diverse set of relationships with the past” by drawing on cultural memories, and defining “the contours of future memories.” “This is a capricious topic, as some of the ancestors of the peoples featured in his work view these images as an integral and collaborative aspect to knowing their cultural past, such as our guest lecturer Joe Horse Capture,” Fishgold says of the individual who led the roundtable discussion at the exhibition’s March 2 opening reception. Joe Horse Capture is the great-great grandson of Horse Capture, one of Curtis’s subjects who is featured in the show, whom Fishgold describes as someone who exhibited “an astoundingly distinct amount of agency in the way he posed for Curtis.” Similarly, in “Upshaw – Apsaroke,” Alexander Upshaw willingly withholds his own personality as he dons Curtis’s costume and poses stoically for the camera, playing a role which the curators call “a willing collaboration with a form of salvage.” Included in the exhibit are display cases of books and more images and anecdotes from the subjects’ descendants about the importance of the photographs as objects of memory, as well as objects bearing Curtis’s images, such as postcards, t-shirts, mugs, and calendars. Both the images of ancestors, held dear by the descendants, and the presence and popularity of the latter group of commercial items, marketed for consumption by white descendants of this land’s invaders, indicate an awkward cultural hunger, a strong urge to possess what was destroyed. The exhibit is presented in conjunction with a six-week-long Humanities Project and series of visiting scholars entitled “The Parallax Effects: Representations of Native North Americans Then and Now,” which explores the ways in which documentaries, photographs, and literature have helped shape the public’s perceptions of Native Americans throughout history. Film screenings and lectures will continue through April 10; for more information, visit rochester.edu/college/humanities.