By: Michelle Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions
Shelley Niro created this series of paintings for a film she has been working on for more than ten years, called Kissed By Lightning. The paintings detail the Journey of the Peacemaker, which is the basis of the unification of the five Nations which became the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Nations.
The story begins with Grandmother’s Dream. The Spirit (the eagle) visits the Grandmother, telling her to leave the child alone because he is going to bring peace to the Haudenosaunee People. The child and his mother are surrounded by modern-day horrors ranging from the Bosnian War to common-place pollution.
The Peacemaker and His Canoe relates the part of the story where the Peacemaker travels in a stone canoe. Scholars of the story indicate that a stone canoe could indicate that this story has been around since the ice-age. Others explain that the Peacemaker has come from a different time or even place.
Face of Peace is a composite painting showing the importance of women in the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy, who have always acknowledged them as equals.
Dark Times illustrates a period of time when disease ripped through the Haudenosaunee territory, leaving few survivors. Society as they had known it had disappeared. Social graces, manners, ceremonies were forgotten. Basic survival skills were forgotten. Grandmothers and grandfathers no longer were there to teach the young. Knowledge had vanished.
Monster Man appears in the next painting, eating a human leg. This person represents people who fear they can never change. He was a man who terrified everyone around him. He was notorious for his cannibalism. After meeting with the Peacemaker, he was able to change, and show others how they too can change.
The Peacemaker Combs Snakes From His Hair shows what one person can do for another person. By removing varmints and bugs from The Monsters hair, The Monster can now think more clearly for himself and start to live a healthy life.
Dreaming of Cornfields shows Hiawatha’s distress as he thinks of his wife and daughters who are no longer with him. In his state of mourning, he can no longer think clearly for himself. His grief keeps him paralyzed and in a catatonic state.
The Healing Of Hiawatha shows the Peacemaker’s hand on Hiawatha’s head, absolving him of grief. With the application of wampum to his forehead, the Peacemaker brings him out of a state of confusion. They begin their journey together, bringing healing to the other people who are also in the same state.
Shelley Niro’s paintings are on view in Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists. The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial featuring Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro through July 5.
Showing posts with label Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial. Show all posts
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Katsitsionni Fox’s Skywoman series
By: Michelle Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions
Katsitsionni Fox’s series of paintings based on the story of Skywoman, who plays a central role in the Iroquois Creation Story, are a personal re-telling of the story she has heard her entire life. “As a young girl I remember hearing about the woman who fell from the sky in our Creation Story. The idea that a woman was first here on earth was empowering even on a subconscious level to my young mind,” she said. Fox’s artist statement reveals more:
Katsitsionni Fox’s paintings are on view in Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists. The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial featuring Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro through July 5.
Katsitsionni Fox’s series of paintings based on the story of Skywoman, who plays a central role in the Iroquois Creation Story, are a personal re-telling of the story she has heard her entire life. “As a young girl I remember hearing about the woman who fell from the sky in our Creation Story. The idea that a woman was first here on earth was empowering even on a subconscious level to my young mind,” she said. Fox’s artist statement reveals more:
It has not been until recent years, as I have matured as a mother and now a grandmother, that I have reflected on all that is revealed in the Creation Story. The Sky world, I have been told, is a reflection of the world in which we now live, which is far from perfect. I began to think about Skywoman not as the flowery character of a story but as a courageous and determined woman, mother and grandmother who not only survived but triumphed over every obstacle in her path. She had to leave her family and the world she knew. She was abandoned by the men in her life, her uncle, her husband and then her lover. She was alone and pregnant falling, falling, falling… into darkness and uncertainty. She created a new world for her daughter and cared for her grandsons when their mother passed away. I could relate to many of the issues that she faced, and could feel her fire burning inside me and in all women that I know. She lives on today; her teachings are vital and sometimes heartbreaking. She also resonates with the beauty of life, love, birth, femininity and the power and strength of all women.
Katsitsionni Fox’s paintings are on view in Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists. The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial featuring Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro through July 5.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Shelly Niro's Skywoman Series
by: Michelle Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions
In the summer of 2001, Shelley Niro created this series of four paintings based on the story of Skywoman, who plays a central role in the Iroquois Creation Story. She worked in a loghouse on the grounds of the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, New York. Niro had lived in the same loghouse as a child, before it was moved to the museum. She said of her experience, “I had no real intention of making drawings based on the Skywoman Creation Story. I knew I wanted to make something expressing freedom, no boundaries, and I had a real hunger to use the human form as a base for this project.”
Preparing for the Fall is the first in the series. A modern Skywoman falls through the hole in the sky where the Great Tree of Life once stood and makes a hopeful attempt to try to pull herself back up to the surface. Instead she grabs onto tobacco plants and strawberry plants.
Losing My Stuff is the second in the series. As Skywoman continues to fall, piece by piece, the things she carries start to fall away. Her beautiful red blanket gets whisked away and her sunglasses, used to keep out the brilliant rays of the sun, disappear into the cosmos.
Through The Constellations shows Skywoman resigning herself to the journey’s struggle. After months of worrying about her destiny—Where is she going? What will she find there? Does her family in the Skyworld worry for her and wonder where she is?—she starts to think about the future. She is pregnant and now worries for her unborn child. She begins to plan and rest up for the conclusion of her voyage.
Loving It is the final painting in the series. Skywoman is near the end of the expedition and now embraces the adventure of this passage. With the medicinal plants she brings from the Skyworld, to the relationships she will eventually make with the animal world and water world, she becomes the mother and role model for those who follow her.
Shelley Niro’s paintings are on view in Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists. The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial featuring Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro through July 5.
In the summer of 2001, Shelley Niro created this series of four paintings based on the story of Skywoman, who plays a central role in the Iroquois Creation Story. She worked in a loghouse on the grounds of the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, New York. Niro had lived in the same loghouse as a child, before it was moved to the museum. She said of her experience, “I had no real intention of making drawings based on the Skywoman Creation Story. I knew I wanted to make something expressing freedom, no boundaries, and I had a real hunger to use the human form as a base for this project.”
Preparing for the Fall is the first in the series. A modern Skywoman falls through the hole in the sky where the Great Tree of Life once stood and makes a hopeful attempt to try to pull herself back up to the surface. Instead she grabs onto tobacco plants and strawberry plants.
Losing My Stuff is the second in the series. As Skywoman continues to fall, piece by piece, the things she carries start to fall away. Her beautiful red blanket gets whisked away and her sunglasses, used to keep out the brilliant rays of the sun, disappear into the cosmos.
Through The Constellations shows Skywoman resigning herself to the journey’s struggle. After months of worrying about her destiny—Where is she going? What will she find there? Does her family in the Skyworld worry for her and wonder where she is?—she starts to think about the future. She is pregnant and now worries for her unborn child. She begins to plan and rest up for the conclusion of her voyage.
Loving It is the final painting in the series. Skywoman is near the end of the expedition and now embraces the adventure of this passage. With the medicinal plants she brings from the Skyworld, to the relationships she will eventually make with the animal world and water world, she becomes the mother and role model for those who follow her.
Shelley Niro’s paintings are on view in Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists. The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial featuring Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro through July 5.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro
by: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions
Every two years Fenimore Art Museum has the pleasure of hosting the Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial. Since its beginning in 1995, the Biennial has been organized by
G. Peter Jemison, manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site, a recreation of a 17th-century Seneca village, located in Victor, New York. Peter, a Seneca, is also a visual artist and film director.
This year, Peter has selected Mohawk artists Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro. Shelley is a painter, printmaker, photographer and filmmaker. Katsitsionni works in a variety of media including digital printing from
photography, video making and installations.
For this year’s Biennial, both artists have created new art based on the story of Skywoman, who is an integral part of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Creation Story, as well as their own contemporary Haudenosaunee cultural traditions. Niro has also rendered paintings relating to the Journey of Our Peacemaker who united the Haudenosaunee into a Confederacy of Five Nations. You can find the story of Skywoman here and here.
In his introductory text for the exhibition, Peter states: “Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro have created art to help define the state of indigenous people in North America, the spirituality of our Indian Way of Life and the resilience of our people. Just as two women played a prominent role in how this earth came to be, Fox and Niro have important contributions to make. Their art is a reflection of the leadership and strength of our women.”
Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists, Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro. The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial opens April 1 at Fenimore Art Museum.
G. Peter Jemison, manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site, a recreation of a 17th-century Seneca village, located in Victor, New York. Peter, a Seneca, is also a visual artist and film director.This year, Peter has selected Mohawk artists Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro. Shelley is a painter, printmaker, photographer and filmmaker. Katsitsionni works in a variety of media including digital printing from
photography, video making and installations.For this year’s Biennial, both artists have created new art based on the story of Skywoman, who is an integral part of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Creation Story, as well as their own contemporary Haudenosaunee cultural traditions. Niro has also rendered paintings relating to the Journey of Our Peacemaker who united the Haudenosaunee into a Confederacy of Five Nations. You can find the story of Skywoman here and here.
In his introductory text for the exhibition, Peter states: “Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro have created art to help define the state of indigenous people in North America, the spirituality of our Indian Way of Life and the resilience of our people. Just as two women played a prominent role in how this earth came to be, Fox and Niro have important contributions to make. Their art is a reflection of the leadership and strength of our women.”
Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists, Katsitsionni Fox and Shelley Niro. The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial opens April 1 at Fenimore Art Museum.
Left: Skywoman’s Daughter by Katsitsionni Fox
Right: Skywoman 2 by Shelley Niro
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