Archive for month: May, 2010

Gail Tremblay
An Iroquois Dreams That the Tribes of the Middle East Will Take the Message of Deganawida to Heart and Make Peace

Gail Tremblay’s sculpture featured in Show of Hands: Northwest Women Artists 1880-2010 and a recent addition to the Whatcom Museum collection, interprets diverse cultural influences with results that are both striking and complex. The artist, also a writer and activist of Onondaga and Mi’kmaq ancestry who teaches at Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA), cleverly recycles and reconfigures 16mm film to create unique works of art that merge traditional and contemporary ideas.

In An Iroquois Dreams That the Tribes of the Middle East Will Take the Message of Deganawida to Heart and Make Peace, Tremblay updates traditional Native American basketry and critiques a global political issue by incorporating documentary film footage from the region in question. The artist creates surprising textures and patterns with colors that reference the flag of Israel and the Kaffias (scarves) worn by Palestinians.

“I enjoyed the notion of recycling film and gaining control over a medium that had historically been used by both Hollywood and documentary filmmakers to stereotype American Indians. I relished the irony of making film take on the traditional fancy stitch patterns of our ash splint and sweet grass baskets.” — Gail Tremblay

Tremblay brings layers of content and design together in a seamless and original style that can be appreciated both formally (artistic elements) and conceptually (theme and subject matter). She invokes a hero of Native American history, Deganawida (also known as “The Great Peacemaker”) who united warring tribes and formed the Iroquois Confederacy to comment on today’s ongoing conflict in the Middle East. All of these aspects build upon and play off one another, contributing to a compelling visual and thematic work of art.

— Barbara Matilsky, Curator of Art