Will Wilson, Talking Tintype, Insurgent Hopi Maiden, Melissa Pochoema, citizen of the Hopi Tribe, Artist, Model. Digital print from scanned wet plate collodion process on aluminum. 2016, CIPX Sante Fe
(PARAMUS, NJ) -- Gallery Bergen presents Talking Tintypes: Examining the Portrayal of Native Americans from September 26 through December 20, 2024. The exhibit features innovative interactive images made by Diné artist/photographer Will Wilson.
Will Wilson's photography intertwines the past, present, and future of Indigenous cultural practices. Growing up on the Navajo Nation, Wilson saw firsthand the environmental and health impacts of the American colonial project and the history of uranium extraction and processing in the American Southwest. His landscape photography and installation work incorporates Navajo mythology, depicts the toxic post-apocalyptic environments Indigenous communities inhabit, and envisions rebirth and rehabilitation through Indigenous practices.
Wilson’s work also challenges the history of Euro-American anthropological photography of Native people, redeploying the method of tintype photography in a series of portraits capturing contemporary Native North America. His process in the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX) is interactive and reciprocal; Wilson works with his subjects to decide how they are portrayed, gives the final photograph to the sitter, and keeps a scan for his portfolio. The result is a vast digital archive that includes his famous Talking Tintypes, which merge nineteenth and twenty-first century storytelling forms.
Using a QR code technology and a downloadable app, visitors can scan the Talking Tintype prints to reveal video monologues and dances by the the subjects. The images move off the wall from the too familiar category of Native American historical relics to the vital, struggling people who are transforming indigenous life in the US today.
The Gallery Bergen exhibition pairs Wilson's Talking Tintypes with photographic prints by Edward S. Curtis from his famous "American Indian" project from the early 1900s as well as images depicting scenes from the "Long Walk" - the forced march of the Navajo people from their homeland to eastern New Mexico in 1864.
There will be an Opening Reception on Thursday, September 26 at Gallery Bergen from 6:00pm to 8:30pm. Food will be provided by BCC's Culinary Arts Program.
Gallery Bergen is now open on Mondays from 10:00am - 4:00pm and Wednesday from 2:00pm - 6:00pm and by appointment. More hours will be added soon.
Gallery Bergen is located on the third floor of West Hall on the main campus of Bergen Community College (400 Paramus Road) in Paramus, New Jersey. It present exhibitions and performances by BCC students and faculty as well as curated exhibitions that connect with the community, their curriculum, and the important issues of our time.
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