From a circa-1820 animal-hide shield cover with a simple drawing of a bear claw to a nearly 50-foot mock whale skeleton made out of white molded-plastic patio chairs, the works are “personal and powerful statements of an individual responding to the world around them,’’ according to Karen Kramer Russell, exhibition curator and PEM’s curator of Native American Art and Culture.
The full diversity of native art is certainly on display. The more than 70 objects in the exhibit include an imposing war club from the 17th century that may have belonged to the Wampanoag war chief Metacom, a.k.a. King Philip, known for leading a bloody campaign against English colonists. But the show begins with an entire gallery devoted to the glittering beads and chandelier of Cree artist Kent Monkman’s 18-foot-tall glam “tipi,’’ belonging to his alter ego, the stiletto-heel-wearing diva Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
The point is not to show the differences between traditional native works and contemporary pieces dripping with conceptual hip, but rather to find commonalities, said Russell.
“It’s this wonderful conversation between new and old that is really intended to emphasize artistic continuities,’’ Russell said, leading the way among crates and scissor lifts as the final pieces of the exhibit were hung. “We want to encourage our visitors to step away from the disconnect between then and now.’’
The Peabody Essex began collecting Native American art in the early 1800s, long before any other existing American museum, notes executive director and CEO Dan Monroe. “Native American art has long been pigeon-holed as craft, artifact, or primitive art. Many people assume Native American art terminated in 1880,’’ Monroe said via e-mail while traveling. The exhibit is intended to help change that.
