Atlanta’s Carlos Museum presents ‘Continuum,’ a celebration of Muscogee art

Gallery wall featuring a map connecting Okmulgee Oklahoma and Ocmulgee Georgia alongside framed artworks and Harjo s audio station Image by Mike Jensen Atlanta has a bad habit of starting its history around the Civil War That s not an accusation it s an observation from Miranda Kyle curator of Indigenous Arts of the Americas at Emory s Michael C Carlos Museum And it s the engine behind Continuum the museum s current exhibition featuring more than works by Muscogee Creek Nation artists Johnnie Diacon and Hotvlkuce Harjo Kyle is careful with her language She calls Continuum not a retrospective but a re-presencing Atlanta tends to start history around the Civil War and frame and fix Indigenous Peoples as parts of a past history Kyle declared This exhibition is intended to lend its voice to the rising tide of individuals and organizations activists and communities calling for and working to re-educate the South on the Indigenous history and contemporary life of the peoples who have been displaced from their homelands The show closing Dec before traveling to Emory s Oxford campus for the calendar year fills the John Howett Works on Paper Gallery with watercolors illustrations jewelry paintings and sound all rooted in what Kyle calls the Kin-Space-Time Envelope a concept borrowed from Dr Laura Harjo s book Spiral to the Stars It s the idea that Muscogee creativity exists in simultaneity that cultural practices and art forms made in contemporary times exist concurrently with the practices of ancestors and future descendants There s no linear progression no movement in the Western sense Just continuum A selection of works from Continuum pairs Diacon s watercolors of Muscogee memory and daily life with Harjo s ink portraits and hand studies highlighting the exhibition s intergenerational conversation across society kinship and lived experience Mike Jensen Re-presencing Muscogee life in Atlanta Creativity exists in simultaneity not in how we conceive linear art movement decadency in the Western Canon Kyle reported So it was vital to me to create the groupings so that they would not just be in conversation with each other physically in the present but also in time Walk into the gallery and you ll see what that looks like A gold panel emblazoned with Continuum anchors the entrance framed by Muscogee design motifs Nearby a wall-sized map traces two points Okmulgee Oklahoma and Ocmulgee Georgia the journey from displacement to homecoming Headphones hang beside the map ready to play Harjo s soundscape that reimagines the entire exhibition through audio Read More First Voices Festival returns to Atlanta to celebrate Indigenous cultures Carlos Museum welcomes Miranda Kyle as curator of Indigenous Art of the Americas A gallery woven across kinship and time Diacon s Preparing for the Feed a luminous watercolor shows a Muscogee woman in brilliant reds and purples preparing sofkey a traditional drink made from corn The intimacy of the scene hands busy skirt catching light makes it feel less like historical documentation and more like a snapshot taken the previous 24 hours Which in a way it is It s invariably an extreme honor to represent our Mvskoke people with my art especially in our ancestral homelands Artist Johnnie Diacon Diacon s Mvskoke Code Talker Aleutian Islands Campaign World War II hangs nearby a review in what continuum means across generations The piece depicts a soldier but it s also about an ancient language that survived U S Indian Boarding Schools where it was banned and later became instrumental in American war efforts from World War I through Vietnam When non-Natives view this piece they may just see a depiction of a soldier Diacon revealed I hope it inspires them to discover more about us and how the ancient procedures continue to be central in our society currently as it was in the beginning time Harjo s work sits in conversation with Diacon s but with a different rhythm Take Your Heleswv rendered in delicate india ink shows two hands holding medicine a reminder that care and healing are part of the continuum too Portraits of young Muscogee women drawn with fine lines and soft backgrounds anchor other walls The generational gap between Diacon born and Harjo born becomes part of the exhibition s structure two artists observing their time in the world influenced by who came before them offering hope to those who come after Kyle s advice for visiting Walk through the exhibition once read the labels then put on the headphones and experience it again with Harjo s composition in your ears For Diacon showing work in Atlanta carries particular weight It s invariably an extreme honor to represent our Mvskoke people with my art especially in our ancestral homelands he stated He sees it as a second blossoming of Mvskoke art in our ancestral homelands It is finding its way back home Continuum is part of a broader effort at Emory The Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative supported by the Mellon Foundation has partnered with the College of the Muscogee Nation on shared curriculum maturation Muscogee language courses and an annual Muscogee Teach-In The Carlos Museum has refocused its acquisition efforts on contemporary Southeastern Indigenous art adding more than new works during Kyle s months as curator But the exhibition isn t just for students or scholars It s for anyone in Atlanta willing to rethink what they assume about the South s past and its present The post Atlanta s Carlos Museum presents Continuum a celebration of Muscogee art appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta