To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, we’re cataloging 25 objects that define the country’s history.
American history is often told through dates and documents, but in a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, it’s told through running water and dense forests.
“Water’s Edge” showcases work by late artist Truman Lowe of the Ho-Chunk nation.
Exhibit curator Rebecca Trautmann explained how a sculpture titled “Feather Canoe” represents Lowe’s work and what his artistic style contributes to the story of America.
Can you tell us what ‘Feather Canoe’ looks like?
“It’s a very delicate, minimalist sculpture made using peeled willow branches or saplings with white feathers suspended within. It’s made in the shape of a canoe, but Truman Lowe is kind of reducing and simplifying the shape of the canoe to its essence. It has an openness about it that really gives the sense of floating or suspension in the air.”
Why is this canoe an important representation of Lowe’s work?
“Truman Lowe was primarily a sculptor, though he also did drawings and paintings. And he created works that portray the woodlands of the place where he was raised. He grew up along the Black River in Wisconsin. He spent a lot of time there with his family in the Ho-Chunk community there fishing and swimming. He felt this really strong connection to moving water like rivers, streams and waterfalls, and to the canoes used to travel these waters.
“He spoke a lot about how he really admired the Ho-Chunk people’s knowledge of wood and of trees, and their ways of building things with wood, whether dwellings or canoes. He also loved recreational canoeing, that sensation of floating between the sky and the Earth, and he loved the structure of a canoe. And so it was really an important subject of his work.”
What was Lowe’s impact on tribal communities through his art?
“In addition to being an artist, he’s also very deeply connected to the place that he was from and to Ho-Chunk history, cultural knowledge and creative practices. And so he had kind of an independence to his work that I think was inspiring to a lot of younger artists.
“He also was an educator. He taught sculpture for 35 years at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He taught generations of artists, including many Native artists, and he was the National Museum of the American Indian’s first curator of contemporary art and organized some really important and influential exhibitions. And he helped to grow our collection of contemporary art before his death in 2019.”
What do you think Lowe’s art tells us about the larger story of this country?
“He really helped bring us to the place we are today, where the work of Indigenous contemporary artists is being collected and shown in mainstream major art museums. It’s being shown next to and in conversation with work by their non-Native contemporaries. And this really enriches the story of American art. It really expands that conversation and the possibilities of what American art can be.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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