GINA ADAMS
Gina Adams, Broken Treaty Quilt Series, Treaty with the Comanche and Kiowa, 1865
Gina Adam’s cross-media studio work includes the use of antique quilts and broken treaties between the United States and Native American tribes. She is an American descendant of both Indigenous (Ojibwe-not enrolled) and colonial immigrants of Irish and Lithuanian descent. “I have chosen to use calico fabric, as it was the first industrialized commodity that was made in the United States and then exported to Europe. The fabric was milled in the northeastern portion of the United States, while the production of cotton and its connection to slavery were intrinsically tied together. There is a deliberate choice to place the broken treaty onto antique quilts that are roughly the same age, and appear worn and broken; in fact they could have been made at the same time the treaties were drawn up and signed. Quilting is thoroughly American. The quilt and quilting bees symbolize community and the promise to work together as a group to finish a major endeavor. While it is difficult to know for certain who made the original quilts in the project, there is reason to believe that they’d been thrown out due to their worn appearance. Sewing together injustice with an object of comfort stirs deep emotion as the burden of the broken treaty is placed on top of the hand-quilted work that symbolizes part of Manifest Destiny and the wagon trains westward. I choose to work in museum and library archives to make historical discoveries that can be reinterpreted into a visual language that has the ability to make sustainable social change.”
8
ARTISTS’ STATEMENTS
