When There Is No Category for a Film in a Native American Language on Oscar Night, Clearly It Is in a League of Its Own

2021

Not on view

Gail Tremblay is a contemporary American artist who draws upon Haudenosaunee basket-making techniques to combine experimental materials with traditional aesthetic practices to create new modes of cross-cultural artistic expressions. Tremblay garnered critical acclaim for her material ingenuity, humor, and creative talents. For decades, she was embraced by Native American art and intellectual communities in New York City and Washington State where she taught poetry, creative writing, and art classes at Evergreen State College.

This oversized Haudenosaunee style "fancy basket" uses innovative materials, including recycled 35mm filmstock and gold metallic thread, to demonstrate contemporary interpretations of traditional Northeastern Indigenous basketmaking techniques, specifically the porcupine stitch, curlicue, or thistle weave. Indicative of Tremblay’s complex woven compositions of layered imagery, the work cleverly addresses romanticized stereotypes of Native American peoples in film and popular culture by using recycled filmstrips of the motion picture WindWalker (1981).

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Title: When There Is No Category for a Film in a Native American Language on Oscar Night, Clearly It Is in a League of Its Own
Artist: Gail Tremblay
Date: 2021
Culture: American
Medium: Film, white film leader, gold metallic braid, plexiglass
Dimensions: 24 1/4 × 15 × 15 in. (61.6 × 38.1 × 38.1 cm)
Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2022
Object Number: 2022.488
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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