Artists in Residence at the Museum: Kali Spitzer and Will Wilson
"Every photograph, every person, has a story to tell, and I am telling it through their portrait. I hope the viewer can recognize the different sides of these stories, including the pain, but most of all, the subject's spirit and perseverance." --Kali Spitzer
From January 6 to 11, artists Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena) and Will Wilson (Diné) will be in residency at the Hood Museum of Art, taking tintype portraits of members of the Dartmouth community.
The artists will set up their traveling dark room, which has been fabricated from an ice-fishing tent, in the galleries and Baker-Berry Library. Selected images will then be printed and exhibited alongside labels written by the sitters as part of the winter 2020 exhibition CIPX Dartmouth, on view from January 15 to March 29.
Conceptualized by photographer Will Wilson, the collaborative project Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX) responds to the widely circulated ethnographic photography of Native Americans beginning at the turn of the twentieth century. CIPX Dartmouth is based on the idea that the photographer and sitter are equals, engaging in conversations about power, self-determination, and presentation in our digital and heavily photographed lives.
"This exhibition presents an incredible opportunity for the Hood Museum to activate our gallery spaces with artistic production as well as a space for the Dartmouth and Upper Valley community to directly engage with these artists and their work," says Jami Powell, associate curator of Native American art at the Hood Museum.
Drop by the galleries in early January during regular open hours to see Kali and Will at work, come by their Conversations & Connections event on January 8, and make sure to visit the exhibition after it opens on January 15.
Admission to the museum is free and open to all.