TV Indians

Cara Romero, Chemehuevi / American, born 1977
Chemehuevi
Great Basin

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2017

Archival inkjet print

Image: 35 × 53 5/8 in. (88.9 × 136.2 cm)

Sheet: 40 1/4 × 58 5/8 in. (102.2 × 148.9 cm)

Frame: 46 × 64 1/8 in. (116.8 × 162.9 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Sondra and Charles Gilman Jr. Foundation Fund

Image courtesy the artist.

2017.46

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

21st century

Object Name

Photograph

Research Area

Native American

Native American: Great Basin

Photograph

Not on view

Label

In TV Indians, Cara Romero juxtaposes television images of Native Americans with a group of young Native folks. From left to right, the individuals in the picture are Crickett Tiger, Kaa Folwell, Santiago Romero ’10, and Dina Devore and child. Unlike the homogenous (mis)representations of Indigeneity on the TV screens, the individuals pictured represent the diversity and specificity of Puebloan communities today.

Early in her career, Romero was influenced by the work of Anglo photographer Edward Curtis. However, she later realized that this approach was not reflective of her or her subjects’ own experiences. Through experimentation with different techniques, settings, and staging, her later work feels conversely theatrical and genuine. Furthermore, it expresses the multiplicity of Native American experiences and identities.

This photograph is like a post-modern story, that is, the kind of fiction that refers to itself and its creation. . . . If there was ever a photograph of mine that needed to be seen large scale to be appreciated, this is it. —Cara Romero

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First Year Student Enrichment Program, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2021

WGSS 10.01, Sex, Gender, and Society, Doug Moody, Winter 2022

College Course 21.01, What's In Your Shoebox? , Francine A'Ness and Mokhtar Bouba, Spring 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program – Culture, Identity, and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Exhibition History

Portrait of the Artist as an Indian / Portrait of the Indian as an Artist, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 24, 2019- February 23, 2020.

Publication History

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 54, ill. fig. 8.10.

Provenance

The artist, Cara Romero Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to present collection, 2017.

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