On August 5, 2022, I saw a University of New Mexico MFA colleague, Will Wilson’s In Conversation: Will Wilson moving photography exhibition at the Deleware Art Museum. He is as a generous a photographer as he is an intellectual. His work is moving, deeply insightful and delves (courtesy Edward Curtis), both personally and technologically, what we all “picture” as the Native American “look”. Wilson is an extraordinary visionary and artist who mounted a stellar show.
“In Conversation presents the works of Diné (Navajo) photographer Will Wilson (b. 1969). Wilson explores the relationship of technology, identity, agency, and representation in photography while also considering the legacy of historical photographs on the representation of Native peoples in North America.
Wilson’s ongoing Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX) project is dedicated to creating a contemporary vision of Native North America. In the series, Wilson combines 19th-century wet plate (tintype) photography with 21st-century Augmented Reality (AR) technology in a convenient app to bring his “Talking Tintype” photographs to life. Through the CIPX images, Wilson facilitates new conversations about Indigeneity that emphasize a reciprocal relationship with the sitters. In Conversation is a contemporary response to historic photographic technologies and the ongoing impact and importance of (self-) representation.”
(The exhibition was curated by Mindy Besaw, Curator of American Art/Director of Fellowships & Research from Crystal Bridges, and Ashley Holland, Associate Curator from the Art Bridges Foundation. In Delaware, the exhibition was expanded by guest curator Kaila T. Schedeen, PhD Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin.)
https://delart.org/event/indigenous/
