'Hiteemlkiliiksix' at College of Staten
Island
Visitors will recognize traditional Indian (i.e. Native American or
indigenous) carvings, baskets and pottery just inside the College of
Staten Island's Gallery.
Deeper in, there are hybrids - bronzes that resemble the
unmistakable carving of Northwest Indians; and abstract, hanging
fiber sculpture; and a nearly life-sized composite print of a
bloodied and victorious warrior.
"Hiteemlkiliiksix," as the show is titled, is the abundant result of
an unusual exchange organized about 18 months ago at Evergreen State
College in Olympia, Washington. Evergreen invited nearby indigenous
artists and their Hawaiian and Maori counterparts on the Pacific Rim
to an extended knowledge-swapping, on-campus residency.
"Hiteemlkiliiksix," actually communicates a bit of this. It means
"Within the Circle of the Rim," i.e. Pacific Rim.
Some 71 artists from 38 native groups attended "The Gathering" in
and around the school's Longhouse, an updated traditional building.
Exchange Skills
They were divided into groups guided by a "lead artist" - a master
potter, basket-weaver, sculptor-carver or printmaker. The idea was
to exchange skills, stories and means of manufacture.
Curator Mario Caro, who helped to install the show at CSI last
month, and is a former student of gallery director and art historian
Nanette Salomon, said he expected "The Gathering" to reveal
similarities, from group to group. Many of these nations were on the
same trade routes," he explained.
Recognizable imagery, particularly animal motifs, crosses tribal
boundaries easily. Participants seemed more likely to exchange
stories than to co-opt each other's traditional techniques.
And yet, there was much back-and-forth, Caro said. Sculptors
experiment with weaving. Weavers worked with clay, and artists in
several media learned printmaking.
One of the show's popular pieces, "Many Hands" is a 12-inch
fired-clay plaque that looks like a map, an aerial view and a
message simultaneously.
Participants studied under Joe Feddersen, a member of Washington's
Colville Tribe.
Feddersen's own prints are ingenious, using geometry and color to
suggest landscapes and traditional motifs.
Their book of colorful prints is one of the show's high points. As a
apprentice basketmaker, he also wove "Procession of the Species" a
small basket with a line-up not unlike Noah's Ark.
Master basket-maker Hazel Pete of Washington's Chehalis tribe, one
of the best-known participants, taught the complex traditional
designs that produce usable vessels.
While Maori (New Zealand) weaver Christina Wirihana's single-helix
hanging work (in brightly dyed flax fibers) is abstract and does not
resemble Ms. Pete's work initially, that changes.
The more time you spend looking, the more kinship you detect. Ms.
Pete, the senior figure of the "The Gathering," died in January at
the age of 90.
The gallery is located in the Center for the Arts (Building 1P, 2800
Victory Blvd., Willowbrook). Gallery hours are Monday through
Thursday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
An opening reception for "Hiteemlkiliiksix," will be held March 26
from 5 to 7 p.m.
The show continues through April 9.
