MONUMENTS NOW’ – Part I: Jeffrey Gibson

Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House’
Medium: Plywood, posters, steel, LEDs, and performances
Dimensions: 44 × 44 × 21 ft
Photo Credits – #1, 3, 5, 7, & 8 Installation images by KMDeco Creative Solutions: Mark DiConzo; #2 Image by Scott Lynch of Emily Johnson performance; #4 Installation image by Sara Morgan; #6 Image by Cut/Cut/Cut: Chelsea Knight & Iztiar Barrio of Laura Ortman performance

About
Jeffrey Gibson’s project for the ‘https://socratessculpturepark.org/monuments-now/MONUMENTS NOW’ exhibition, ‘Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House,’ serves as an homage to ingenuity of Indigenous North American peoples and cultures, to pre-Columbian Mississippian architecture, and to queer camp aesthetics. Gibson designed the multi-tiered structure to reference the earthen architecture of the ancient metropolis of Cahokia, which was the largest city of the North American Indigenous Mississippian people at its height in the thirteenth century. The earth mound of the pre-Columbian ziggurat is represented in Gibson’s multi-tiered monument with a plywood structure adorned with a vibrant surface of wheat-pasted posters. The posters integrate geometric designs inspired by the Serpent Mound located in Ohio, another monument of the Mississippi Valley, alongside texts that operate as activist slogans. Gibson also curated Indigenous led performances to activate the structure over the course of the installation.
Programming
Gibson invited three Indigenous creatives – https://socratessculpturepark.org/ortman-interview/Laura Ortman, https://socratessculpturepark.org/program/johnson-documentary-premiere/Emily Johnson, and https://socratessculpturepark.org/program/chacon-performance/Raven Chacon – to activate ‘Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House,’ with a series of performances released as part of a virtual https://socratessculpturepark.org/program/gibson-screening-series/screening series over the course of the ‘https://socratessculpturepark.org/monuments-now/MONUMENTS NOW’ exhibition.
https://socratessculpturepark.org/program/gibson-wilcox-conversation/In Conversation: Artist Jeffrey Gibson & Socrates Curator Jess Wilcox–
https://youtu.be/hIZfGCOWcTQhttps://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/program/gibson-screening-series/Screen-Shot-2021-02-04-at-1.30.25-PM-300×170.png

https://youtu.be/LdxIpL9RoKEIndigenous Kinship Collective Land Acknowledgment–
https://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/page/events/Screen-Shot-2021-07-23-at-12.54.33-PM-300×169.png

https://socratessculpturepark.org/program/ortman-documentary-premiere/Laura Ortman Performance Documentary Premiere–
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsRuimMZM_c36EMNQuNfQL5Vzlh659cHxhttps://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/program/gibson-screening-series/Laura-Ortman-screen-shot-copy-300×169.jpg

https://socratessculpturepark.org/program/johnson-documentary-premiere/Emily Johnson Performance Documentary Premiere–
https://youtu.be/nJAmqdMnFCkhttps://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/program/gibson-screening-series/Screen-Shot-2021-02-18-at-11.41.05-AM-300×169.png

https://socratessculpturepark.org/program/gibson-ortman-johnson-chacon-conversation/In Conversation: Jeffrey Gibson, Laura Ortman, Emily Johnson, & Raven Chacon–
https://youtu.be/x9ci8wthTBQhttps://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/program/gibson-screening-series/Screen-Shot-2021-03-04-at-4.49.56-PM-300×169.png

Press
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/27/eye-catching-art-for-an-unprecedented-summer-in-monuments-nowThe New Yorker
https://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/artwork/because-once-you-enter-my-house-it-becomes-our-house/IMG_8148-copy-300×300.jpg

Jeffrey Gibson and his project at the Park were photographed by https://www.instagram.com/stevenmcontreras/Steven M. Contreras for the July 27th issue of https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/27/eye-catching-art-for-an-unprecedented-summer-in-monuments-nowThe New Yorker magazine. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/27/eye-catching-art-for-an-unprecedented-summer-in-monuments-nowSee Image–