Winkta (Gay)

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, in ink, lower left: D. Wilcox / '10

Label

In Winkta (Gay), Wilcox depicts Native and non-Native spectators scorning two openly queer couples. This interaction speaks to the ways Western ideologies have been internalized, showing the Native onlooker’s adoption of the White voyeur’s fear of and discomfort towards queerness. Queer love is a strong facet of Indigenous tradition, giving this scene a poignant and paradoxical quality.

Wilcox draws on ledger paper, a reference to the Plains practice of ledger art which emerged from existing narrative artistic practices following the Indian Removal Act in the mid-nineteenth century. Using materials that were readily available at the time, Indigenous peoples recorded visual histories in ledger books to bolster oral traditions. By embracing ledger art as a modern medium, Wilcox confronts what it means to both embrace and turn back on “tradition.”

From the 2023 exhibition Love as Ceremony: Legacies of Two-Spirit Liberation, A Space for Dialogue 114, curated by Moonoka Begay '23, Conroy Intern

Course History

WGST 65, Queer Visual Culture, Gabriele Dietze, Winter 2014

WGST 18, Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Studies, Eng-Beng Lim, Winter 2015

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States, Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States. Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

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

NAIS 8.01, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Heid Erdrich, Fall 2022

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 2.01, Introduction to Queer Studies, Eng-Beng Lim, Summer 2023

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 114, Love as Ceremony: Legacies of Two-Spirit Liberation, Moonoka Begay, '23, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 19 August - 14 October 2023.

Provenance

The artist, Rapid City, South Dakota; given to present collection, 2011.

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Subjects