"I was invited to an artist residency at the Pilchuck School of Glass in Washington last summer, and shortly after that at the Tacoma Museum of Glass. Because of these residencies, I tried to figure out what I would do and just kept coming back to trade beads."
"It really is about the global trade network and how something from Italy can travel through Europe, to Africa and then come to the United States. It's this traveling kind of origin story of beads, and then what happens when they arrive."
Wendy Red Star, an Apsáalooke artist, presents a site-specific solo exhibition titled One Blue Bead at Sargent's Daughters gallery in Manhattan. The show engages with the contested historical narrative of the Lenape people's alleged 1626 sale of Manhattan to the Dutch for beads. Red Star transforms the gallery into a simulated trading floor featuring Hudson's Bay point blankets, monumental trade beads, over 100 watercolor paintings of beads, and an informational newspaper. The exhibition traces the global trade networks that brought beads from Italy through Europe and Africa to the United States. Red Star's multidisciplinary practice actively retraces and reexamines historical narratives, with her work represented in over 80 public collections internationally and featured in major institutional exhibitions.
#indigenous-art #trade-beads-history #colonial-narratives #site-specific-installation #global-trade-networks
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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