Jeffrey Gibson features in 'SITElines.2016 much wider than a line' SITE Santa Fe Biennial
SITE Santa Fe present SITElines.2016, the second instalment in SITE Santa Fe’s reimagined biennial series with a focus on contemporary art from the Americas. The exhibition features 35 artists from 16 countries and 11 new commissions organised around intersecting ideas brought together by a team of five curators, Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Kathleen Ash-Milby, Pablo León de la Barra, Pip Day, and Kiki Mazzucchelli.
‘much wider than a line’ is an articulation of the interconnectedness of the Americas and various shared experiences such as the recognition of colonial legacies, expressions of the vernacular, the influence of indigenous understandings, and our relationship to the land. The presentation takes its title from Leanne Simpson’s, ‘Dancing on our Turtle’s Back’, a book about life ways of Nishnaabeg people. In her accounts of non-colonial conceptions of nationhood and sovereignty, it is the joint care taking required in the overlapping territorial boundaries between one Indigenous nation and another that are traditionally relationship-building. The relationships that emerge are, like the borders themselves, much wider than a line.
Key thematic threads include: ‘Vernacular Strategies’ – the importance of vernacular sources−in design, architecture, textiles, and technique that influence the work of artists throughout the Americas; ‘Indigenous Understandings’ – performance, ritual, histories, and materials drawn from indigenous sources, as they relate to the natural world and ‘Shared Territories’ – the complexity of networks and affinities in the Americas through questions around identity, race, borders, and emerging de-colonial practices. Jeffrey Gibson's commission 'LIKE A HAMMER', is an installation and performance that takes its title from the civil rights-era folk song 'If I Had a Hammer'. The artwork includes the beating of a drum and a recorded performance of Gibson in sculptural, beaded regalia alongside drawings made as part of the performance.
Participating artists include: Jonathas De Andrade, Xenobia Bailey, Lina Bo Bardi, Anna Boghiguian, Margarita Cabrera, Raven Chacon, Benvenuto Chavajay, William Cordova, Rometti Costales, Mariana Castillo Deball, Lewis deSoto, Aaron Dysart, Carla Fernández, Miguel Gandert, Jeffrey Gibson, Jorge González, Maria Hupfield, Graciela Iturbide, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Zacharias Kunuk, David Lamelas, Cildo Meireles, Marta Minujin, Paulo Nazareth, Abel Rodríguez, Tanya Tagaq, Javier Téllez, Juana Valdes, Pierre Verger and Erika Verzutti.
