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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2022)
6 Wednesday, February 2, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Lively exhibits bring visitors to High Desert Museum By T. Lee Brown Correspondent High Desert Museum members glimpsed hints of utopia and indigenous futurism on Friday, at the preview for the new exhi- bition <Imagine a World.= Featuring themed, catered treats and a live DJ, the event also offered access to other temporary shows currently on display. The brightest, most excit- ing section of <Imagine a World= features original art- works. Called <Indigenous Futurisms,= it shows three Native artists who <envi- sion alternative worlds and recognize the ways that cos- mology, science, and futur- ism have long been part of Indigenous worldviews and oral traditions,= imagining <Native people well into the future.= Above visitors9 heads float the space-suited <Astra Sapiens= of Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce/Onondaga Nation, Beaver Clan). The Santa Fe artist described the intention behind the instal- lation: <We live in a world addicted to living our best lives on social media... My perspective is from a posi- tion of power and positivity. A good amount of my work isn9t for the gaze of the art market or collectors4it9s for Indigenous people.= From closer to home come Brutis Baez (Wasco, Paiute, Warm Springs), pre- senting a video installation; and Camas Logue (Klamath, Modoc, Northern Paiute), a multidisciplinary artist. Logue9s shimmering, tex- tural works in oil and graph- ite on wood form a bold and entrancing diptych. The future implied is a sobering one; the piece is named after last year9s Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon, the third- largest fire in the history of the state since 1900. The title reads, <(loloks / bootleg fire) our ancestral homelands burn while the settlers steal the water.= Critics have taken to task various <back to the land= lifestyle efforts and idealistic communes in the American West, like those featured in this exhibit. Commonly led and inhabited by white people of European colonial ancestry, these movements 4 following the 19th century9s <manifest destiny= credo 4 assume that the West9s allur- ing, wide-open spaces are empty, blank, just waiting for white visionaries, builders, ranchers, and farmers to fill them up. The West was already rich with history, culture, nature, and humanity for thousands of years before colonization. <Imagine a world where Indigenous people have the land back,= wrote Logue in an artist9s statement, <how that would truly be back to the land.= Educational displays with sculptural elements and inter- active touches fill up most of the small gallery. <Imagine a World= focuses on the Utopian dreams and histori- cal realities of several inten- tional communities in the West. The most well-known to Oregonians is likely to be Rajneeshpuram, an experi- ment in alternative living that went awry (see related arti- cle, page 16). Drop City was a classic counterculture artists9 com- munity, formed in Colorado in 1965. The founders saw their new way of living as an extension of Drop Art, an approach they invented. Their work was influenced by Allan Kaprow9s infamous Happenings and the impro- vised performances of art- ists like John Cage at Black Mountain College. Inspired by the architec- tural ideas of Buckminster Fuller and Steve Baer, resi- dents famously built domes and zonohedra to live in, using auto parts and other inexpensive or recycled materials. Part of one dome is installed at the High Desert Museum, with its geomet- ric panels labeled <Do Not Touch.= In 1967 the group won Fuller 9s Dymaxion Award for their efforts. A large black plaque at the show read, <For being such an out there, on-the- cutting-edge community, the gender division was remark- ably traditional. I9ll just say that I never saw a guy wash a dish.= The quote was attrib- uted to Drop City member Carol DiJulio. Another display explores Hog Farm, a roving hippie experiment sometimes tak- ing the form of a commune. Spearheaded by activist- clown-wildman Wavy Gravy (a.k.a. Hugh Romney) and his wife Bonnie Beecher (a.k.a. Jahanara Romney), the group combines media prankster- ism, clowning, and working toward political change, and supporting events such as the Woodstock festival. The Law Offi ce of JOHN H. MYERS, S LLC C — Downtown Sisters — WILLS & TRUSTS Make it easy for you and your loved ones. Call for a free 30-minute phone consultation! 541-588-2414 204 W. Adams Ave., Ste 203 www.centraloregonattorney.com SCHEDULE YOUR FENCING PROJECTS NOW! LOOK AT THE Spring Flowers! 243 N. Elm St., Sisters Open 10 am-4 pm Mon-Sat — CLOSED WED — 541-549-8198 WE DELIVER! Craftsman-Built Custom Fencing, Ranch & Agricultural, Residential, Commercial 5 541-588-2062 CCB#228388 F FREE R E E E ESTIMATES S T I M A T E S & COMPETITIVE C O M P E T I T I V PRICING Locally Owned, Superior Customer Service www.SistersFenceCompany.com PHOTO BY TL BROWN Red space-people hover above blue buffalo in Frank Buffalo Hyde’s “Astra Sapiens NDN2K22.” Camas Logue’s work in oil and graphite on wood is on view to the left. At Woodstock, the Hog Farm crew were hired to build fire pits and trails. Then they set up a free kitchen4 an element essential to the counterculture that emerged in 1960s San Francisco, thanks to the Diggers. When informed that they were also to perform security, Hog Farmers promptly named themselves the <Please Force= (as opposed to police force) and asked people to please do the right thing as needed. Hog Farm once took the form of an actual hog farm in California, teeming with 960s hippies. Today the group has a headquarters in Berkeley and a ranch in Mendocino County, hosting music fes- tivals and a performing arts camp for children, Camp Winnarainbow. At the exhibit9s center, an interactive art installa- tion allowed visitors to type in words describing their potential Utopia, resulting in a computer-generated projec- tion. <Imagine a World= runs through September 25. Other temporary exhi- bitions on view included <X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out= from the Smithsonian, a visually stunning, immer- sive installation of undulating black-and-white X-rays of fish species arranged in evo- lutionary sequence (through May 8). <Carrying Messages: Native Runners, Ancestral Homelands and Awakening= celebrates several Native people who draw on running as a means of empowerment, sovereignty and cultural revi- talization (through April 3).