Myths, Home, and Self-Portraiture

The works of Wendy Red Star dealt heavily in themes of identity, home, and personal narrative. Her Family Portrait Series is a collection of photos incorporated into a colorful star quilt, which is traditionally a precious object in Crow Communities. This work is a statement of personal identity and according to the artist was made in response to a crisis of authenticity. Also featured, and easily my favorite was a collection of annotated photos from the 1880 Crow Peace Delegation. These photos were taken during a meeting between the Crow Delegation and the President and some subjects of these photos went unidentified until Red Star dove into her history to give them a narrative.

 

 

            Kambui Olujimi’s featured works are part of a collection that stems from his book of contemporary myths, Wayward North. Skywriters was an excerpt of that book but I couldn’t tell you what it was about. The Constellations exhibit is a dozen lithographs that represent characters and other things from Wayward North. Not featured in the Newark Museum, are fabric star-maps that Olujimi created as part of this collection which also feature characters from the book. By using star-maps and the constellation lithographs Olujimi draws on the origins of myths and tales, the stars. 

            During my research, I discovered that Puerto Rico has influences from the native Taino that lived in the Caribbean when Columbus sailed. I found a myth about a young woman who is left to drown in a river by her cowardly father but is saved by a Taino warrior. Of course, the girl and the warrior fall in love and her father attempts to kill the warrior so he flees. The warrior a girl meet once more and her father ends up shooting her in an attempt to kill the warrior. She is revived by the warrior with some magic water and he is then killed by the dad while returning to bring news about his daughter. The father never knows his daughter lived and she stays in a cave waiting for the warrior to return, eventually dying of a broken heart. If I decided to include the story mentioned then it could have some slight connection to Wendy Red Star’s works. The Crows and Tainos were from different lands but they both have the pleasure of being visited, nearly eradicated, and forgotten.