scars and skin.

I am not going to be able to make it to this exhibit as it closes on Sunday but it looks awesome.

HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor
March 6–August 1, 2010 (Part I)
The National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY

The press release states:

For Native people, skin encompasses an entire universe of meaning. Our own skin functions as a canvas that we can inscribe with messages about our identity or use as a shield to protect and hide our secrets. As a material, animal skin or hide has had a long history within Native culture. It is a symbolic reminder of historical misrepresentation, exploitation, and racial politics. The artists selected for HIDE draw upon this subject in multi-faceted ways, using both the material and concept of skin as a metaphor for widespread issues surrounding identity and personal, historical, and environmental trauma and perseverance. In their work, they interrupt our understanding of race, distort our perception of “skin,” and breach the artificial boundaries created by this potent subject matter. Rather than hiding difficult issues, they expose what is beneath the surface.

Sounds fascinating, no?

In particular I would like to have seen the work of Nadia Myre. She has work on display from her work The scar project. A project in which Nadia works interactively with others in discussing issues of healing, wounds, and loss. The participants are invited to sew their scars into the provided canvases and reveal whether their scar could heal or not. The project is very poetic and to me very constructive for the individuals. I think that embroidery and sewing can be extremely cathartic and can heal emotional scars and trauma by its invitation to meditate on your thoughts. In this project Nadia invites her audience to experience that for themselves.

This inspired her next project the Forgiveness project. What would you want to be forgiven for?

Most of Nadia' work uses the scar both as a literal form and as a metaphor for issues within her culture, culture in general, media, & identity.

She not only works with sewing techniques but makes gorgeous beaded works as well.

Her projects are displayed in a very minimal way and seem to have a ton of back story to them. She is a very interesting artist and I will be curious to see more work from her.

She also creates some pretty powerful videos that you can watch here.

I hope that one of you can make it to the exhibit. There are a number of artists in the show and on the website utilizing fiber and fiber techniques. The museum is free so you can't beat that.