Exhibit | HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor

(KC Adams - Cyborg Hybrid Donna, 2009)

HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor is a two-part exhibition at The National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center in New York, NY. Part I will be open to the public March 6, 2010 until August 1, 2010. Part II will be open to the public September 4, 2010 until January 16, 2011.

• SONYA KELLIHER-COMBS: MARCH 6–AUGUST 1, 2010
• NADIA MYRE: MARCH 6–AUGUST 1, 2010
• MICHAEL BELMORE: SEPTEMBER 4, 2010–JANUARY 16, 2011
• PHOTOGRAPHY/SHOWING SKIN: SEPTEMBER 4, 2010–JANUARY 16, 2011

For Native people, skin encompasses an entire universe of meaning. Our own skin functions as a canvas that we can inscribe with messages about our identity or use as a shield to protect and hide our secrets. As a material, animal skin or hide has had a long history within Native culture. It is a symbolic reminder of historical misrepresentation, exploitation, and racial politics. The artists selected for HIDE draw upon this subject in multi-faceted ways, using both the material and concept of skin as a metaphor for widespread issues surrounding identity and personal, historical, and environmental trauma and perseverance. In their work, they interrupt our understanding of race, distort our perception of “skin,” and breach the artificial boundaries created by this potent subject matter. Rather than hiding difficult issues, they expose what is beneath the surface.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Nadia Myre, and Michael Belmore each present bodies of sculptural and mixed-media work that explore skin as a surface—revealing, concealing, and defining. The work of these artists awakens the senses, drawing the audience into a tactile experience of the materiality of their work as well as making them think about the complex ideas that emerge from this compelling art. The photographers invited to participate in the exhibition—Arthur Renwick, KC Adams, Terrance Houle, Rosalie Favell, and Sarah Sense—have created a diverse collection of portraits that play with and challenge our notions about the representation of Native people.
Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator

For more information go to: http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/hide/

Must Read | WILD: Fashion Untamed

What do Sitting Bull, Cher, and Alexander McQueen couture have in common?

The answer lies in a publication for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition WILD: Fashion Untamed. An important contribution to fashion and culture studies, this book documents the ongoing obsession with animalism as expressed through clothing.

“With more than one hundred costumes and accessories on display, ‘WILD: Fashion Untamed’ focuses on the practical, spiritual, psychosexual, and socioeconomic underpinnings of the decorative possibilities of birds and beasts.”

As you can expect from an exhibition catalogue, this publication is packed with vivid and visually captivating fashion photography spotlighting extravagantly feathered and furred models. The exhibition presents an unparalleled selection of couture created by over 70 well-known designers, such as Roberto Cavalli, Dolce & Gabbana, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Bob Mackie, Alexander McQueen, Prada, Anna Sui, and Gianni and Donatella Versace.

Published in collaboration with Yale University Press, this catalogue not only presents some of the most exotic fashion designs in history, but also includes five essays that touch on subjects as controversial as racism, sexism, colonialism, and environmentalism.

The first chapter discusses the use of prehistoric tropes, such as the primitive huntress La Belle Sauvage by designers to convey modern concepts of womanliness. The second chapter spotlights fur’s signification as an elite commodity and as a sexual commodity. Next, the use of feathers is discussed as displays of male erotic and economic power, and as signifiers of female artifice and sexuality. In the fourth chapter, the author analyzes the visual and conceptual conflation of woman and cat in fashion, and the use of feline symbolism to invoke primal instincts referencing independence and initiative. The final chapter focuses on the reptiled female as powerful sexual symbol.

The catalogue can be purchased online at the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, or on Amazon.com.