Opening Reception
August 16, 2008
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
As an aesthetic, stripes have endured through time and the evolution of design. The intensity inherent in banded layouts is one of repetition and dualities, invoking an infinite awareness of negative and positive space that engages a meditative balance of harmony. However, often in discussing the purely formal and aesthetic considerations of an object, it is assumed that the cultural or historical meaning will take a backseat to the ideals and principles of design or fashion. In this exhibition, we hope to re-unite these concepts such that the striped aesthetic will once again be laden with cultural meaning and historical depth particular to Native North American indigenous art. In the stripe’s deliberate simplicity, we uncover a world of complex relationships.
Dualities and oppositions abound in Native American ideologies. Banded designs speak of these narratives, concerned with life and creation itself. Across the Southwest, the Plains, and California, stripes have appeared on objects associated both with everyday life and those items imbued with ritual or tribal significance. Items created for sale or trade, both inter-tribally and to outside markets, also confirm the use of stripes and bands as popular decoration—it was an aesthetic that was easily palpable and not necessarily bound by a particular place or time. The symmetry, or lack of symmetry, in a striped design was a way to engage and balance between two forces—earth/sky, dark/light, man/woman, human/animal, etc. These forces, as the layout of striping can reflect, were not necessarily equal in weight as they attempted to capture and echo the dynamic nature of a cosmos constantly in motion. Stripes continue to act as cultural signifiers, adding insight into individual tribal traditions as well as speaking to cross-cultural influences and tastes.
