Jeffrey Gibson, Resident Artist Lecture 2014

Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson gives a lecture at Skowhegan showing his interdisciplinary practice. Gibson talks about the subjective language of abstraction and how it has played a role in his work. Gibson relates this to ideas of infirmity on circulation, and how the infinite passing of information determines what is lost, what’s maintained, and how this shifts our ideas of the utility and value. Gibson also talks about the many collaborations he has undertaken as an artist, and how sometimes collaboration can become problematic due to the economic structures that have existed in the past between Gibson and the collaborator. Gibson also reflects on his identity as Native American, exploring the ideas of third gender, and the powwow. For Gibson, embracing powwow has allowed him to also realize that underneath the structure of community built on familial and design structures, the value of individualism is still an important concept to consider. Powwow has also allowed Gibson to embrace ideas of utopian alternative communities, and how this has allowed him to think about economy and community.