Gina Adams, “Its Honor Is Here Pledged: Broken Treaty Quilts,” 2017. Materials: cloth, thread, texts from treaties made with Native American tribes that have been broken. White Cube Gallery, Naropa University, Boulder, CO.
From Naropa University’s official statement: “Gina Adams’ exhibition Its Honor is Here Pledged: Broken Treaty Quilts has everything to do with particular, painful moments in so-called modern time: when ‘white man’ broke his promise over and over again to the originals settlers and people of America: Native Americans. “I have been cutting out the letters of entire Broken Treaties–these were pacts written by the United States Government and signed by Native American Tribes. These pacts promised the tribes money and power in exchange for the rich land they called home for possibly thousands of years. The Government took the land; however the Tribes were left penniless”. The exhibit invites the visitor to step inside the gallery and witness words from the past that continue to be broken.”
From an interview with the Huffington Post: “In an email to The Huffington Post, the artist explained that seeing native people in America use quilts for warmth was a common theme in her research of old photos in the Smithsonian Museum and archives. ‘Blankets were one thing that was given to the Native people who were forced to move to the new reservations,’ she wrote. ‘It is my wish that the viewer gain an understanding that there is a relationship between the treaty text and the impact that it still has on present generations.’”
Read the rest of the Huffington Post article here.