Landing in America: Art and Activism under the Gun was commissioned by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis and installed at their gallery in Minneapolis for the Unconvention show running parallel to the National RNC and DNC presidential conventions in 2008.
There are five parts to the exhibit. Click through each move where individual artists and activists share the streets with legendary art heros and political stars. Animate the frames by dragging the mouse. CLick in each frame to advance to the next clip.
ENTER EXHIBIT
The Ghost Dance lyrics in scene 5 were a controversial part of tragic Dakota history in “nice” Minnesota. The Indians were suffering a brutal ethnic cleansing carried out by the local people and National government. In spite of efforts that included Little Crow’s repeated journeys to Washington D.C. where he appeared before members of Congress to resolve the question of “annuities” owed to the tribe but never payed, some tribe members “resorted” to this dance and chant over the objection of other members who saw the dance as useless and counter-productive. The dance and dancers were later demeaned in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Traveling Shows and Thomas Edison found the dancers a suitable subject for a number of his films that thousands saw out of context via his “Kinetoscope.” I included the lyrics because I hope that they do haunt the people who seem to have so easily forgotten this history.
) You may not hear audio with 64-bit systems. We have a fix for that on the way.