Winter

Label

Wendy Red Star, in Winter, asserts her Crow woman’s dignity and authenticity within an Indian Disney-esque "natural," pristine, and staffed museum diorama, complete with fake owls, cardinals, and crows, and paper snowflakes.

This country was founded on the eradication of Native people. We were also, paradoxically, used for tourism to promote the expansion of the West. Really what it all boils down to is humanity. I am always trying to show this in my work. We are human beings. For some reason, Native people are represented as eradicated. . . . It’s worked pretty well. I think people are surprised when they find a Native person because in the consciousness of America we don’t exist. We are these mythical creatures. . . . I moved to Los Angeles in 2004 from Montana. . . . I was struck by the lack of natural environment in the city of Los Angeles and I was also lonely for home. . . . I took a trip to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum to look at the Native American section. I saw one of my Crow ancestor’s moccasin’s on display in a glass case. . . . I strolled through the dioramas and found in them the same cold quality as the display of my ancestor’s moccasin. I decided to construct my own version of a diorama and to convey how this format of display makes me feel. I fabricated four elaborate sets, one for each season, complete with plastic inflatable woodland creatures and 1970s photo mural mountain ranges. — Wendy Red Star

From the 2019 exhibition Portrait of the Artist as an Indian / Portrait of the Indian as an Artist, guest curated by Rayna Green

Course History

WRIT 5, Family Memoir, Ellen Rockmore, Winter 2015

WRIT 8, Writing with Media, Kenneth Bauer, Spring 2015

SART 30, SART 75, Photography II and III, Virginia Beahan, Spring 2019

ANTH 3, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Spring 2019

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Fall 2019

ANTH 3.02, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Fall 2019

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021

Art History 48.02, Histories of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Spring 2024

Native American and Indigenous Studies 42.01, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality, Studies 40.01, Gender Topics in Native American Life, Jami Powell, Fall 2024

Exhibition History

About Face: Self-Portraiture in Contemporary Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 23-August 30, 2015.

Portrait of the Artist as an Indian / Portrait of the Indian as as Artist, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 22, 2019 - February 23, 2020.

Provenance

Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnisota; sold to present collection, 2014.

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Subjects