Luke Failed to Communicate

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, in ink, lower left: Wilcox / 08 [in script]; inscribed, in ink, left center: 1890 [on first figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, left center: 1973 [on second figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, center: 1443 [on third figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, center: 1868 [on fourth figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, center: 9912 [on fifth figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, right center: 46203 [on sixth figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, right center: 8691 [on seventh figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, right center: 43282 [on eighth figure's uniform]; inscribed, in ink, lower to upper left: 1882 Dr C. C. Buck Cr / M[illegible, possibly May 31] To Amt LA 110 111,5 March 30 By Amt L. A. ,,, 111,5 [in script, written with orientation of sheet, vertical to drawing, with left at bottom]; inscribed, in ink, lower to upper center: 1882 Dr [illegible] and J B Thurber Cr / May 31 To Amt LA 150 31 63 May 31 By Amt LA 131 311,3 / July ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, July ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 51.42 / Aug ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 5582 / X $8805 $8805 [in script, written with orientation of sheet, vertical to drawing, with left at bottom]; printed, in ink, lower left corner: 282 [printed with orientation of sheet, vertical to drawing, with left at bottom]; printed, in ink, on label affixed to reverse of mount: LUKE FAILED TO COMMUNICATE 282

Label

Dwayne Wilcox’s chosen medium is ledger paper. Ledger art became famous in the early 1900s and enjoyed a resurgence in the 1960s and 1970s. Wilcox draws on the legacy of ledger art, which is most famously associated with the art made at Fort Marion. In the 1870s, 71 men and women were imprisoned for being "off the reservation" due to hunger. They were imprisoned at Fort Marion, a disused Spanish colonial fortress that had been built, in part, by Native labor, at St. Augustine, Florida. Prison leaders encouraged prisoners to create drawings on ledger paper to be sold to tourists in St. Augustine. The marketability of these drawings encouraged reservation-bound artists to create art for sale to non-Native consumers. It also influenced the content of the drawing so as to be more desirable to white audiences. These drawings, however, did offer alternatives to the artistic, romanticized, and often ahistorical representations of Plains cultures in well-known works by Western artists.

Wilcox uses ledger art, in part, to show how he views aspect of white culture, reversing the typical paradigm of white people portraying Native Americans. Titling the work Luke Failed to Communicate provides one such commentary: Wilcox perhaps views the American justice system as flawed and highly bureaucratic, improperly delivering "justice." People can be incarcerated for seemingly insignificant or unjust reasons, such as miscommunications. Despite the "rational" tool of the ledger, the system as a whole is represented as irrational, which adds to the complexity of this drawing.

From the 2019 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 95, Creating Knowledge and Control, curated by Annabelle Bardenheier '19, Conroy Programming Intern

Course History

NAS 8, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Vera Palmer, Fall 2012

NAS 8, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Vera Palmer, Spring 2012

NAS 8, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Vera Palmer, Spring 2013

NAS 8, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Vera Palmer, Spring 2013

NAS 8, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Vera Palmer, Fall 2014

NAS 8, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Vera Palmer, Fall 2014

NAS 35, ENGL 32.01, Native American Literature, Melanie Benson Taylor, Spring 2019

NAS 32.01, ENGL 53.02, Indian Killers: Murder and Mystery, Melanie Benson Taylor, Spring 2019

Center for Cartoon Studies, Steven Bissette, Fall 2019

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2020

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 95, Creating Knowledge And Control, Annabelle Bardenheier, Class of 2019, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 10-September 22, 2019.

Publication History

Annabelle Bardenheier, Class of 2019, Conroy Intern, A Space for Dialogue 95, Creating Knowledge And Control, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019.

Provenance

Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to present collection, 2008.

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Subjects