1. reviewed
Hide:
Skin as
Material
and
Metaphor
By Beverly Sanders
Two makers who find in tin a medium for
revealing personal watements in ways xat are
simultaneously sophiwicated and primal.
George Gustav Heye Center Animal skins—hides—have played an im- medium of acrylic polymer, augmenting the
Smithsonian National Museum portant role in traditional Native Ameri- texture with nylon threads, glass beads and
of the American Indian can culture and identity, and the National reindeer fur. The surface is mottled and
New York, ny Museum of the American Indian has regu- bumpy; the colors enhance the play of light.
Part One: Sonya Kelliher-Combs larly exhibited such venerable objects as The hanging threads remind one of fur trim
and Nadia Myre beaded deerskin garments and paintings on on a parka.
Mar. 6 – Aug. 1, 2010 buffalo hide. But this two-part exhibition, The pouch form reappears three-dimen-
nmai.si.edu curated by Kathleen Ash-Milby, is not sionally in Kelliher-Combs’s wall installa-
about tradition. Contemporary artists who tion Small Secrets, a row of diminutive fin-
Part Two of “Hide” will be at the museum are known in the art world but retain strong gertip-shaped containers made of walrus
Sept. 4, 2010 – Jan. 16, 2011. ties to their Native communities were in- stomach bristling with human hair, glass
vited to address skin as an actual art mate- beads and nylon thread. They resemble del-
rial and as a vehicle for comments on a icate empty shells that once enclosed a form
range of social issues. The first part high- or substance. Common Thread, a similar but
lights two makers known for multimedia larger installation, comprises three rows of
work who find in skin or its representation pouches, stitched from reindeer and sheep
Kelliher-Combs photos Kevin G. Smith.
a medium for revealing personal statements rawhide rather than stomach membrane.
in ways that are simultaneously sophisti- Even more redolent of her Alaska heri-
cated and primal. tage is her series Brand, in which Kelliher-
Alaskan-born Sonya Kelliher-Combs Combs has brought together walrus stom-
(Inupiaq/Athabascan) combines organic ach, seal intestines, reindeer, polar bear,
and synthetic materials in works that con- elk and moose fur, seal skin and the like,
vey intimacy in their tactility, yet are baf- as well as acrylic polymer, nylon thread,
fling in their hidden meanings. In the series paper and cotton to create 15 panels. She
Walrus Family Portraits, she layers ghostly aggressively “processes” these skins, stitch-
pouch-shaped walrus stomachs within a ing them or branding them with circular
032 american craft aug/sep 10
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