Guess who is American Indian, photo installation, 2002, 20" x 16" each

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Flathead Salish) PhD (Honorary), Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1992; PhD (Honorary), Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, 1998. Collections: Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), Museum of Women in The Arts (Washington, DC), Museum of Mankind (Vienna, Austria), Museum of Modern Art (Quito, Ecuador). Over 75 solo exhibits. Reviewed in major publications including New York Times, Art News, Art in America, and Art Forum.

Neal Ambrose-Smith (Flathead Salish, Cree, Metis) was born in Texas in 1966.  A photographer, he received a B.A. from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley (1991).  He has collaborated with his mother, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith for many years.

The black and white photo installation Guess who is American Indian by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and

Neal Ambrose-Smith forms one part of a five-part installation, 200 Years: Change/No Change, and was originally commissioned by the Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State, in conjunction with the conference Lewis and Clark: The Unheard Voices, Fall 2002. The installation was created to show how America has changed and stayed the same since the Corps of Discovery Expedition. Ambrose-Smith took pictures of people that Lewis and Clark would encounter if they launched their Expedition today. These photographs also address stereotypes of Native Americans and express Quick-to-See Smith's theory that In Future We Will All Be Mixed Bloods (to borrow the title of her 1995 lithograph/collage.) By asking Guess who is American Indian? the artists make a guessing game of the viewer's unspoken assumptions about race. Among those portrayed here are full-blood Native Americans, mixed bloods, Europeans, and Asians. Humor is effectively used to gently disarm the viewer of racial stereotypes.

 

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