Acquisitions/
1994/
Jimmie Durham/
Linen on Polyvinyl Chloride

Jimmie Durham insisted, “I’m not really an artist on my own, I’m a social artist in that I want my work to be part of whatever discourses are going on.” For over 30 years, as a poet, essayist, performer, sculptor, filmmaker, and activist for the American Indian Movement, Durham has spoken out against cultural exploitation and displacement of indigenous peoples. He questions accepted notions of the “other” by mining historical figures who, like himself, have served as interpreters—either by choice or by force—between the oppressed and their subjugators.

Here, Durham combines natural, "authentic" materials, such as animal hide, with an industrial material used for conveying sewage known as Polyvinyl Chloride or PVC--which has the brand name "Apache."  This awkwardly constructed sculpture appears to be utilitarian, yet its function remains mysterious; it perhaps mimics the absurdity of an ethnographic object ripped from its original context and placed on display in a museum.