Lifeworlds-Artscapes

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In this companion volume to a groundbreaking exhibit, curators Sylvia S. Kasprycki and Doris I. Stambrau have assembled an impressive selection of contemporary Iroquois painting, graphic arts, photography, sculpture, and essays. Organized thematically around the multidimensional relationship between human beings and the land, this art explores the decisive influence that questions of "place" and "home" have on individual and collective identities. Much of the work collected here does not fit the mold of "traditional" Native art; rather, it reflects the ways in which elements of traditional culture can manifest themselves in contemporary media, thus emphasizing the living quality of these traditions. These pieces draw upon and extend conventional definitions of "land," "home," and "identity." Grounded in a very distinctive cultural history, these artists have created fresh and surprising iterations on the theme, describing spaces as grounded as a garden, and as fluid as a road trip, and identities so multilayered as to require as in Jeffrey M. Thomass work, "six articulations." Beautiful photographs of the art are accompanied by a series of essays, several by the artists themselves. From the sensual photographs of Shelley Niro to the eclectic figures in clay of Peter Jones, from the reflective mixed media installations of Katsitsionni Fox to the engaged photographic installations of Jolene Rickard, the variety and richness of the body of work is an impressive testament to a lively community of artists.