In Conversation: Will Wilson
OCTOBER 11, 2024–JANUARY 8, 2025
MUSEUM EXHIBITION
In Conversation: Will Wilson features portraits from Diné artist Will Wilson’s ongoing Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX ) project alongside photographs made by American photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868–1952). Wilson’s CIPX project is dedicated to creating a contemporary vision of Native North America. At the turn of the twentieth century, Edward Curtis embarked on a journey to produce a series of portfolios that documented Native Americans and their ways of life. The results, published as The North American Indian (1907–1930), were decidedly romantic while being received as reality. Curtis reduced his subjects to archetypes rather than allowing for personal agency. He would often provide props and worked diligently to ensure no examples of modern life appeared in his constructed scenes. For Wilson, CIPX is a way to create new conversations that decenter the work of Curtis and instead emphasize exchange over problematic documentation.
For CIPX , Wilson employs a wet-plate collodion photographic technique, based on the nineteenthcentury method that involves exposing and then developing a plate that has been coated in lightsensitive chemicals. Wilson pushes the CIPX project into the contemporary with the inclusion of “Talking Tintypes,” which use AR technology to bring photographs to life. Through his work, Wilson explores identity, the photographic medium as both art and science, and community. He collaborates with his sitters, who determine the pose, clothing, props, and how they are presented. As a gesture of reciprocity, Wilson gives the sitters the original photograph, while retaining the right to print and use scans for artistic purposes.
IN CONVERSATION: WILL WILSON WAS CURATED BY MINDY BESAW, CURATOR OF AMERICAN ART/DIRECTOR OF FELLOWSHIPS & RESEARCH FROM CRYSTAL BRIDGES, AND ASHLEY HOLLAND, ASSOCIATE CURATOR FROM ART BRIDGES.
In Conversation: Will Wilson is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. SUPPORT PROVIDED BY ART BRIDGES
WORKSHOPS & PROGRAMS
ALSO ON VIEW
Portraits of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Past & Present
At the Sun Valley Museum of Art, an auxiliary exhibition explores portraits of members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes made at the turn of the 20th century and today. In 1895, the Danish American photographer Benedicte Wrensted arrived in Pocatello, Idaho, where she established a photography studio. Among her clients were members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes whose portraits Wrensted took until leaving Idaho in 1912. Unlike Edward Curtis, Wrensted invited her sitters to present themselves as they wished, and members of the Tribes appear in her photographs in both traditional regalia and settler dress. The exhibition also includes photographs made by photographers for the Sho-Ban News—Lori Edmo, Roselynne Yazzie, and Jeremy Shay—at events including the annual Shoshone-Bannock Festival.
SVMOA MEMBER PREVIEW & EXHIBITION TOUR
Fri, Oct 11, 5–6pm Sun Valley Museum of Art FREE for SVMoA members
SVMoA Members are invited to join the Museum’s curators for a preview and exhibition tour prior to the Opening Celebration.
OPENING CELEBRATION
Fri, Oct 11, 6–7pm Sun Valley Museum of Art
FREE
EVENING EXHIBITION TOURS
Thu, Oct 24, Nov 21 & Dec 12, 5:30pm
Sun Valley Museum of Art
FREE Join SVMoA’s curators for a tour of the exhibitions.
ART CLUB
PORTRAITURE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Wed, Oct 9, Nov 6, & Dec 4, 5:30pm
FREE for SVMoA members / $15 nonmember
Join SVMoA staff for Art Club, a series of discussions for those interested in learning more about contemporary art and artists. This fall, we are exploring Portraiture in the 21st century. How are contemporary artists, including Will Wilson, approaching the genre of portraiture in new and innovative ways? How can portraits express not just the identity of the sitter but larger ideas reflecting the time and place in which they are made?
LECTURE
LOUISE DIXEY & VELDA RACEHORSE ON BENEDICTE WRENSTED: PORTRAITS OF THE SHOSHONE-BANNOCK TRIBES
Thu, Oct 17, 5:30pm
Sun Valley Museum of Art FREE, pre-registration suggested, space is limited Join Louise Dixey, Cultural Resources Director at the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, and Velda Racehorse, Archivist at the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, for a conversation on Danish American photographer Benedicte Wrensted, who made portraits of many members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in her photography studio in Pocatello, Idaho, at the turn of the 20th century.
BILINGUAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOP PORTRAITURE & SELF-REPRESENTATION AT SVMOA’S DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS CELEBRATION Sat, Oct 19, 1–3pm
The Hunger Coalition, Bellevue FREE, pre-registration suggested Join SVMoA and the Hunger Coalition for a Community Workshop on Portraiture and SelfRepresentation at our annual Día de los Muertos Celebration! Participants are invited to bring objects and wear clothing that represents who they are and how they want to be seen. A photographer will take portraits of families, friends, and individuals, inviting sitters to express themselves as they participate in the creation of a collective portrait of the Wood River Valley. We’ll have Polaroid cameras on hand for participants to photograph each other with, too. Everyone will receive a copy of their portrait to take with them.
ARTIST TALK WILL WILSON
Mon, Dec 16, 5:30pm
Sun Valley Museum of Art
FREE, pre-registration suggested, space is limited
Join Diné artist Will Wilson for a talk about his practice, his Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange and his work to continue and transform customary Indigenous cultural practice while working against the “archival impulse” embedded in historical images of Native people.
[Edward] Curtis created the most comprehensive archive of Indigenous North Americans, and now contemporary artists want to take that authority back and create archives of who they believe themselves to be.
In Conversation: Will Wilson
