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MECI-IOOPDA TRillAL MEMBER Jacob Meders's prints blurthe lines o f how we perceive images o f Native Americans. teasing out the nuances of what he calls "the dialogue of assimilation and homogenization of culture" that's passed between the first Americans and evcr}rone who came after Columbus. In style and content many of Mcxlers's woodcuts riff directly on the ftrst published images o f the C.1ribbean island people Columbus mot in 1492 for instance. the torso of a Native American on the costumed k-gs of a European. l-Ie displays the five large woodcuts in severn] long sheets. each showing the same images arranged in varied sequences to scramble the narrative. "I like to look back in history at how Western culture created the image of Native pt'Ople," Meders says. "It's diverse and complicated I also s(·e how tho way Native people l'Cel about themselves has been influenced by media and culture pt'Ople looking in have as much influence as pt'Ople looking out I like to play with that dialogue. Nothing is black and white. How do we see ourselves. and what makes us see ourselves this way? l'm not looking at the answers. but at the questions. I '"'ant to get the viewer to think about them.
see those complicated issues. then try to bridge that gap of dialogue." You can sec what Meders means when he hangs the woodcuts with a time warp "15th· or J6th·century aesthetic" in his solo exhibition. Divided Lines, at tho Museum of Conte mporary Native Arts (MoCNA) in Santa Fe. Divided L{nes will be on view at the museum August 16 through December 31 along with two other shows. Steven ). Yazzie's Tlu Mountain and Cannupa Hanska Luger's Stereotype: Misconceptions of tlu Native Amtrlcan. ··Each artist provides a unique perspective on contemporarr realities that are personaJ . cuJtural. and part of the ongoing narrative o f social histories in America and beyond." says Ryan Rico. chief curator o f MoCNA.
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