Part of the crowd inside the Kentler

Friday, February 8th, was the opening night of the new exhibit Native Voices at the Kentler International Drawing Space, a 501c3 gallery established in Red Hook, Brooklyn in 1990. For NAICA and Longviews, Red Hook is like going to New Jersey. That means it’s highly inconvenient to get there. We had to take a train and then a bus to get there, but I am glad we did.

(For the record, associate editor, Sonny Grant lives down the block from the gallery thes rest us live up in Queens).
Surprisingly, I say surprisingly ’cause of aforementioned distance, there was a large turnout for this all native contemporary “wordks on paper” show. More surprisingly, the crowd was ethnically diverse, not just the usual suspects we always see at these events, meaning Natives and friends of Natives.; not that there is anything wrong with the usual suspects but they’re already in the know. Contemporary native art needs to find a larger, more diverse audience, somehow the Native Voices show did exactly that.

The space itself is not unlike a lot of other small galleries in that it is basically one long hall; not exactly narrow but not wide enough to be the traditional square art space. It was large enough to contain a decent sized crowd as well as a snack and wine table at which some very good Malbec was served. For the record Longviews correspondents, Sonny Grant and myself, had two small cups each. We don’t condone drunkeness but do condone social drinking especially when the drink is actually good. For more information on the gallery check out their wesbite: www.kentlergallery.org.

The exhibit, co-curated by Raquel Chapa and Deborah Everett, was as diverse as the audience representing many genres of works on paper, as well as, levels of technical excellence. That’s a nice way of saying some of the artists seemed to not have as much technical prowess as others while some had plenty prowess but lacked conceptual knowledge or consideration. All in all though, an important step in getting native contemporary work into galleries not directly associated with the native community-not that there is anything wrong with native-centric galleries-as long as they aren’t in Santa Fe. HA!

The show runs through March 23 and makes a tour of Brooklyn stopping at Long Island University and FiveMyles. For more information on this show and other topics hit up our very first podcast of the new year located below.

Views from the gallery:

Artist, Mario Martinez points out the wine and cheese table.

Curator, Raquel Chapa, interviewed by anonymous white dudes.

Some works by Lorenzo Clayton

Frank Big Bear’s wicked cool Timezones 1985-86

Detail, Untitled (Bicultural) 2006, Artist Jason Lujan

Best in Show (solely the opinion of NAICA online and Longviews):

Kay Walkingstick’s, We’re Still Here, 2004

All photos: M Colon

 Episode 1-Happy Chinese New Year!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Negotiating any identity in world that is evermore globalized and homogenized can be a tricky business at best. Compound that with an identity that is in direct (or even remotely adjacent) contrast to the globalized majority and you run the risk of negotiating yourself into a tight spot. Context is everything when it comes to fully (or partially) realizing another’s culture, and most audiences’ attention spans haven’t the time for things like context. Therein lays the proverbial rub.

It is with this in mind, that NAICA attended the 8^th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Festival in the hopes that we would get a good dose of context in which to begin another year of curatorial internet madness. And really, for the most part, I would say we were not to be disappointed. imagineNATIVE has always (as far as I know) included a Fine Art component in their programming that not only lends itself to compliment the larger media festival, but adds a precious dose of cultural context that so many of us need to have a decent world view. Plus, as we all know, those seats in the Al Green Theatre are less than comfy, so it is nice to get off one’s ass and go look at some art.

So let’s talk about the art this year. In a co-curated exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) entitled Shapeshifters, Time Travellers and Storytellers, curators Candice Hopkins and Kerry Swanson created a beautifully esoteric exhibition combining works of contemporary indigenous artists and filmmakers with a few samplings of traditional native objects, such as an Iroquois wampum bag and an engraved prehistoric mammoth tusk from Alaska. “Beautifully esoteric” are deliberate word choices on my part (not to insinuate that most of my words choices aren’t deliberate…) because the exhibition was truly beautiful and well crafted as far as choice of contemporary artists and their work, but esoteric even more so, mainly for the decision to include these few traditional objects from the ROM’s “cultural” collection with an almost arbitrary flair. I don’t want to equate it to that “primitive” art exhibition scandal in New York many years back (at which museum now escapes me) in which the curators exhibited artists like Picasso alongside categorically de-contextualized African and South Pacific carvings. But… then again, I must compare in that way simply because that is what came to mind when viewing these traditional objects in the larger context of contemporary indigenous based art. As an objective viewer, I simply had no idea what they were doing there.

I know that historically, the ROM has had a somewhat spotty reputation (on par with the Smithsonian here in the States) for exhibiting indigenous-made objects in an anthropologically patronizing way, and that the curators of this exhibition, in part, desired to display these objects, contemporary and traditional, side-by-side in order to weave a dialogue of past and present indigenous identities. The problem was that instead of a time-traveling, shape shifting dialogue, you simply had a wonderfully curated contemporary indigenous art exhibit with a random sampling of anthropological tidbits. There was no talking between the contemporary and the traditional. They were like silent strangers, awkwardly crowded together on a subway car.

The curation of contemporary work was pretty much spot on though (aside from the exhibition space being a little weird), and I wish that these pieces (from artists such as Kent Monkman, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Brian Jungen, Isuma Productions and the wonderful Alan Michelson) had been left to stand alone, on their own merits and on their own strengths as pieces of powerful storytelling. It wasn’t that the traditional objects took away from the exhibition necessarily; it was more that they didn’t add anything to it. And certainly these objects did not give the viewer the dose of context that I believe the curators were going for.

I digress though, because what I really wanted to talk about were the contemporary pieces, as that is what I believe imagineNATIVE does best; contextualize contemporary indigenous artists for a broader audience. There are plenty of great pieces to mention, but I will stick with my favorites, the ones I spent the most time with, and refer the reader to the podcast (below) between myself and Maria Colon, for further information and opinions on the exhibit in full.

First I have to mention the piece by Brian Jungen, Cetology, a 40 foot sculpture of a whale skeleton made out of plastic lawn chair parts. It was suspended from the ceiling by wires, like a dinosaur in a natural history museum. I mention this piece first simply because it visually dominated the exhibit, and also because I feel it did more to set the stage for dialogue between past and present than say, the wampum wallet or the mammoth tusk. It also challenged the viewer to look past the obvious contexts of contemporary objects (read: plastic lawn chairs) and anthropological references (read: natural history lookin’ skeleton) and determine the fragile space between the two. That fragile space is exactly the space contemporary indigenous artists must negotiate.

Another great example this carefully negotiated space: a piece by Faye HeavyShield, entitled hours, which was small, white book, whose pages were completely constructed out of seed beads. I don’t need to mention the correlation between traditionally exhibited Indian beaded objects and HeavyShield’s piece, but I will mention it simply for the fact, that yet again, this contemporary work did not need no wampum wallet to contextualize it for the audience. It spoke for itself.

Other great pieces were an installation by Nadia Myre, The Dreamers, which was a sprawling sculpture with spears and traditional Innu fishing nets, a 13-part video installation Nunavut (Our Land) by the beloved Kunuk and Cohn of Isuma Productions, and three mixed media objets d’art by the imitable Kent Monkman, who despite his tendencies to be extravagant for the sake of being extravagant, does a damn good job of negotiating the fragile space mentioned above. Not to mention he’s openly gay, which adds a whole other ingredient to the identity pot. But my favorite work by far was Light After Darkness, a video triptych by US artist, Alan Michelson. With titles (and an artist’s statement) taken from a melodramatic 1907 quote by Edward Curtis, Michelson paints a digital portrait of an ever-changing contemporary indigenous landscape. These three real time videos of urban skylines, displayed in gold frames like Remington landscapes, moved slowly from daylight to dusk, deluminating the industrialized cities of Ontario. All they needed to contextualize them was an incongruously gleaned quote from the Great Father of Indian Portraiture:

Alone with my campfire, I gaze about on the completely circling hill-top, crested with countless campfires, around which are gathered the people of a dying race. The gloom of the approaching night wraps itself about me. I feel that the life of these children of nature is like the dying day drawing to its end; only off in the West is the glorious light of the setting sun, telling us, perhaps, of light after darkness.

Edward S. Curtis, 1907.

 ROM Exhibit: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (75)

NAICA is proud to have Kimowan McLain as our Summer Edition Artist-in-Residence. He joined us for a podcast to discuss his work for the residency, theories involving web culture, and of course, the best method for knotting one’s hair into a twenty-foot long strand.

Visit the artist’s website at www.kimowan.com.

[Image courtesy of artist: The Moth and the Wasp, Installation view, 2000]

 K.McLain: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (70)

Ahhh the long hot days of summer. They inspire laziness, beer-drinking, and heat-stroke-if you have no central air conditioning which those in the NAICA New York offices do not.
But here we are again gabbin’ about Indian Markets, Val Kilmer, and offering excuses about why our Summer edition was somewhat tardy.

My excuse? It’s hot dammit. There you have it.
Back On Track.
In case you’re wondering we think Kilmer is the most relevant actor of his generation (sorry Kevin Bacon and Spacey-both non-Native…or are they?). He’s NAICA’s favorite Indian-next to Eddie Spears and Gary Farmer and Cododo Dragon, and the Harj and Larry Low-down Lowe and some others too. But after them he’s #1!
We also don’t condone the paparazzi harassing people trying to enjoy a beer on a summer afternoon. But I…I mean “we”, thought this picture was cute. He looks like an over-grown 10th grader who drinks lite beer. And that’s cool-sort of.
Enjoy!

 Standard Podcast [20:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

summer of love.
yes. naica and longviews are in love with the beautiful ogre that is jemaine clement. in fact we’ve been in the throws of love since we saw this picture which is why we haven’t posted another podcast since.

oh jemaine….you scamp.

but we’ve emerged from the sweaty haze of love and here we are to regale you with upcoming NYC related events, tales from couches up north, the benefits of marrying a Canadian, and NAICA’s impending (late) summer edition.

praise be to new zealand dudes with hobbit feet.

(www.myspace.com/naicaonline)

:)

 summr of drunk [24:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this weeks edition of Longviews we introduce you to our new friend from Red Hook, Sonny Grant.

Sonny and Maria goss it up about exhibitions in New York City, Adam Beach’s mysteriously tragic Hollywood career (how can an Indian known for his smiling affabilities always play some tragic sourpuss? tis a mystery!), cougars, the return of the Harj to New York City and some other stuff thrown in for good measure.

 sonny beach [28:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I went. To the B&N at Union Square. It is an unpleasant experience walking through that train station, even worse the park filled with all it’s many assholes and homeless assholes who congregate to deal drugs, beg from tourists, or people who look like tourists to their drunk and bleary eyes. Of course, the requisite NYU fucks,who think they are so smart. You’re not. NYU students; they won’t let me apply to the Cinema Studies doctorate program because I have a lowly MFA and they don’t take MFAs because they’re not “academic.”

So FUCK YOU and your elitist institution.

Speaking of elitists, the Alexie reading was run by a sychophantic nazi who simultaneously mind-blew the Sherm whilst castrating the audience. She practically put up a barracade-a big psychic barracade-between the audiences hopes of a few words one on one with their favorite Indian author (Isn’t he like the only one alive? No? Well he certainly acts that way!), and his hopes to get the fuck out of there with the quickness after perfunctorily signing his thin book. Literally thin cause it’s not very long for a novel. But we all know he’s not really a novelist, now is he? Anyway, this crunt was all up Shermies ass, his big flat Indian ass, his description, not mine, so I was already pissed off before the reading began. Let me tell you I have a death-stare gaze without provocation. Imagine me provoked? In the front row?
But, when the Sherm came up to the stage to sit, rather awkwardly (see above), at the big book signing table to listen to her babbling intro, he smiled at me and my friend.

I thought, “Wow he’s not a douche afterall!”

That thought passed.

Lest I sound completely hateful let me say I own just about everything he has written. I own his one flimsy directorial attempt and even wrote a lovely review about it. So I don’t altogether hate the guy. However, I do vacillate between loathing his self-aggrandizing performance and forgiving him the indulgence because the crackers (and cracker-esque minorities) in the audience hung on his every lispy word (guess who lisps?). Guffawing and cackling, clapping wildly, and chortling mirthlessly. But at what? The tales of a drunk homeless Indian kid who finds salvation on the streets of Seattle or something like that (I guess I could read his new book but frankly it sounded like every other story he’s written)? His none too ironic caricature of white people? Were they laughing at themselves laughing at themselves? I really didn’t get it. So I refrained from laughing at all. The truth is I chuckled a few times, but I thought the other’s laughter was canned, pre-programed by the evil B&N drones who pressed a button everytime Sherman thought he said something funny. Uproarious laughter! How fun is he? Listen to them roar.
I was a little freaked out. Like something really negative was about to drop.
He babbled on evidently not following his own storyline, but making a go at giving voice to the one-note characters-if his reading is any indication this is more of the same bullshit he’s already dished, and his acting affabilities have not evolved for the better. He went for a dramatic finale but ended abruptl. And rather awkwardly.

Then the “really negative” dropped-the Q and A.

As anyone who pays attention to these interactions knows, well-educated/well-off white people love Indians to stand in front of them to tell them some truth. Indians know truth. I did not get that memo but apparently they do. Especially tall Indian men with funny accents and clever cultural observations. Sherman is no exception. In fact, he is the standard rule. He offered truth in the form of an obnoxious Q&A stand-up routine that was unsolicited, and frankly, unwarranted. Of course, the dumb ass deer-in-headlights crowd didn’t ask him many questions. Too reverent? I don’t know but when a few brave enough to do so did he either made fun of them or gave them a terse answer which was his segue into aforementioned obnoxious stand-up routine. Yeah, yeah. I know, Sherman has been told he’s funny. Perhaps, one too many times?
Hear for yourself.

(photos: m colon)

 douche chill! [21:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

photo: m colon
my goodness summer does inspire visits to the ole nyc.

it also spawns sidewalk dining, really short shorts-the kind flat and flabby asses hang out of-the likes of which i witnessed at sunday brunch with Pod(cast)emski & Harjo, a classical guitar duo the likes of Medesky & Wood-but Native, and cultural events, lots of them. i digress, of course, because this is a Longviews joint and digressions are our signature.
yes there are things to do in nyc if you’re not broke or dead! too many for one lil ole naica editor to attend, but maybe one of you Longviews listeners would go in my stead? then you can report back and i won’t feel bad that i couldn’t be there or had to choose one event over another as they are all credibly portentous and should be attended in earnest by myself, but such is my one shot existence…yes, those cultural events i mentioned:

The Harj at BAM, June 4, 2007, 6pm-ish: www.bam.org

Alexi at Barnes and Noble Union Sq, June 4, 2007,7pm-ish: www.fallsapart.com/schedule.html

Native Cinema in New York, June 5, 2007, 7pm on the dot: www.nmai.si.edu

Podemski at the Living Room, June 6, 2007, 11pm-ish: http://www.livingroomny.com

Eagle vs Shark advanced screenings in nyc, June 12, 13, 14 2007: to download passes http://www.eaglevsshark.net

Flight of the Conchords, June 13 and 14, 2007, 7pm, Gramercy Theatre: tickets SOLD OUT (sure to be an Indie Fuck Fest!).

in this week’s podcast we regurgitate the above mentioned items, and more. then we careen into pretentiously academian discourse regarding the required genre “Native Cinema.” then we re-live our mortifying lack of googling before going into an interview, though that can also fuck you over with misinformation and/or reveal one’s functioning illiteracy status (like Renee confusing “gonzo journalism” with “gaucho journalism.”) Then we say some other stuff i can’t remember which will have me downloading my own stupid-facted podcast.

c’est la internet.

oui oui

 the big to do [32:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (88)

It is an established trope to include all aspects of an interview experience in one’s piece
(it is also an established trope to call your interview assignment a “piece”): the time you arrived at
predetermined destination; descriptions of what the interviewees were wearing (see above); their countenance (see above); what they ate, etc.
Of course, such tidbits read as pertinent, casually humourous and intimate details
offering the reader an insider’s glimpse of the interviewing process.
These seemingly off-handed observations are bullshit. We hate them.
Unless Chuck Closterman is the writer. Then they’re o.k. because we like Closterman’s writing style, but it has spawned many clones,
and we don’t want to come off as one of them, even-though I probably am.
False modesty and self-denigration in an interviewer (or projected onto the interviewee) is also an established trope. You will get plenty of that here at Longviews. But fuck those trendy bullshit tidbits about designer clothes and tardiness on anyone’s part especially Longviews interviewers.

All we’re saying is this podcast was recorded live from Sunday brunch at a shitty restaurant in the Lower East Side where Longviews host and NAICA editor (me), Maria Colon spoke (loudly due to buses and cars and pedestrians) with the director and co-star of the Sundance favorite, Four Sheets to the Wind, screening tomorrow night (June 4, 2007) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mouth’s full and misinformation ensue, but you’ll soon hear it for yourself, no need to (off-handedly) mention it in this intro.

Links-u-Need:

http://www.bam.org
http://www.livingroomny.com
http:/www.nmai.si.edu

(photo: m colon)

 classical guitar edition [20:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

not too long ago i received an email in NAICA’s myspace box from a concerned myspace citizen asking that NAICA withdraw it’s support of The Bastard Fairies (in the form of kicking them off our friends list. AS IF!), specifically, it’s lead singer/songwriter, Yellow Thunder Woman. Evidently, the concerned citizen has found grave danger in Yellow Thunder Woman’s sex-r-castic commnets via her recent Playboy interview, deducing that Yellow Thunder Woman was pro-native prostitution, pro-war, pro-promiscuity! my goodness, it was quite alarming. so i clicked the links provided as proof to see for myself what it is sassy tits had said that was grounds for myspace rejection and what i found was an interview bubbling with sarcasm, biting humour, and mild self-effacement in the form seemingly self-aggrandizing comments. it was a pretty good interview given the dopey questions. but what struck me was how the concerned myspace citizen twisted the intent of Yellow Thunder Woman’s comments to suit her own (humourless cheerless, baseless) ends. i hate people like her-cowardly, twisted, manipulative, mealy-mouthed. just how cowardly is she? i suggested she contact Yellow Thunder Woman to voice her concerns directly but she declined claiming she had all she needed to know from her (few, very few) interviews and songs. really? a few interviews here and there and you have all you need to know about someone? if that’s not a danergous sentiment, i don’t know what is? the long and short is that NAICA advocates free speech. whether you like what someone has to say or not, they do have the right to say it. but, we also advocate contacting people directly, especially if there is something they represent or have said that you find challenging. dialogue is the best possible course to understanding one another and to that end i decided it was best to speak to Wakinyan one on one to hear what she had to say about these (shallow) accusations and her recent forays into internet infamy. (i could be accused of soft balling my questions, and while that might be true in some context, let it be known i already came with an agenda and that was to skewer the cowardly myspace citizen who ill-fatedly dropped me that retardo email on me. cause i will call out some bullshit fo sho! so let that be a lesson to you! behind the back bullshit (and lack of humour) will bite you in the ass everytime!)

 support native prostitution (sike!) [34:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download