1980-now: learning resources

Speaking to past and present, Clarissa Rizal's Resilience Robe

Key points

• Clarissa Rizal (the mother of Lily Hope, the speaker in the video) was a Chilkat weaver who was part of the Tlingit tribe of Southeast Alaska. Chilkat is a traditional form of weaving that originated among the Tlingit and other tribes in this area. Robes like this one are worn by high-ranking members of the community during important dances and ceremonies.
• The creation of a Chilkat robe requires many months or even years of labor. The wool is hand spun and then expertly woven on a loom where the threads are attached only at the top. The techniques used in Chilkat weaving are passed down through generations of female weavers.
• Chilkat weaving is traditionally done only by women, but it incorporates formline imagery (curvilinear shapes) that can also be seen in the Northwest Coast wood carving that is typically done by men. This particular robe incorporates both traditional and modern motifs (such as the important tribal symbols of eagle and raven, as well as European ships and museum doors) to express the resilience and continued strength of the Tlingit people.

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Wendy Red Star, 1880 Crow Peace Delegation

Key points

• The Crow Peace Delegation of 1880 included Medicine Crow and five other chiefs who traveled to Washington DC to discuss land rights and negotiations over building the Northern Pacific Railroad through Crow territory.
• Although these are portraits of individual chiefs, the photographs reflect the deliberate erasure of Native American culture that served to dehumanize the Crow and other indigenous peoples in the U.S. The use of these images in popular reproductions today continues the practice of outsiders commercializing Indian identity.
• Red Star uses her artistic process to assert each man’s individual identity and accomplishments, as well as to learn more about her own culture as a Crow Indian and to share it with others.

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Reflecting on "We the People"

Key points

• “We the People” is the introductory line to the Preamble of the Constitution that boldly declared the right of people of the United States to govern themselves. Still, when it was written in 1787, the “people” was narrowly defined and did not necessarily include women, African-Americans, Native Americans, or those who did not own land.
• Nari Ward uses a common material, shoelaces, to evoke the many different people who are today brought together in the phrase “We the People.”
• By using the draping shoelaces to define the old-fashioned calligraphic script, Ward obscures the words slightly. In this way, he encourages the viewer to pause and perhaps reconsider this familiar text.

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United States Federal Building and Courthouse, Tuscaloosa

Key Points

• Like many other civic structures across the United States, the federal building and courthouse in Tuscaloosa was designed in the neoclassical style, emulating the features of ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
• Neoclassicism was one of a number of architectural revival styles in Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. The renewal of the classical style, however, had particular importance in U.S. architecture as it was–and still is–seen to symbolize the values of democracy, which is believed to have originated in ancient Greece.
• In recent years, however, a debate has emerged about the use of the classical style in civic architecture in the U.S., particularly in response to a 2020 presidential mandate that all federal buildings employ a classical design. The issue has taken on a political tone, with critics of the mandate arguing that the exclusion of other architectural styles, especially those that represent the diverse cultural heritages of the American population, is undemocratic and alarmingly reminiscent of the rhetoric of totalitarianism.

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