PRESENTATION:Jeffrey Gibson-Power Full Because We’re Different
Drawing influence from popular music, fashion, literature, cultural and critical theory, and his own individual heritage, Jeffrey Gibson recontextualizes the familiar to offer a succinct commentary on cultural hybridity and the assimilation of modernist artistic strategies within contemporary art. Known for his re-appropriation of both found and commercial commodities –ranging from song lyrics to the literal objecthood of punching bags – repurposed through Minimalist and post-Minimalist aesthetics, speaks to the revisionist history of Modernist forms and techniques.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo MASS MoCA Archive
London-based Australian performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer. Bowery was known as a muse and model for the painter Lucian Freud, but mostly he was notorious for his wildly creative costumes, makeup, and gender-bending performances; contemporary drag culture would not exist without this visionary producer. In 1988, Bowery was by the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London to create a new performance, the artist’s debut in the art world. For one week Bowery took up residence in the gallery’s front window, which was fitted with a one-way mirror. Bowery brought costumes, makeup, and props and spent his time preening, striking poses, and performing for himself in the mirror. While he only saw his own reflection, he knew that he was performing for people on the street. This revealing/concealing unabashedly upended the times’ societal norms of beauty, identity, and otherness. Bowery died of AIDS-related illnesses in 1994, just before Gibson moved to London. Though Gibson missed Bowery, someone he counts as a savior, he has remained inspired by his predecessor ever since. Two years after Bowery’s performance, the third Annual Gathering of Native American Gays and Lesbians took place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. At this gathering, Dr. Myra Laramee (First Nations Cree) brought the term Two- Spirit to the group after it appeared to her in a dream. Laramee makes clear that she did not invent the phrase but rather that it was a sacred term. Albert McLeod (Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the Metis community of Norway House in northern Manitoba), who was instrumental in organizing the gathering and has led activism around Two-Spirit and LGBTQIIA+ (or 2SLGBTQIIA+) rights to this day, states that the term “affirms that we are spiritual beings aligned in balance with all facets of creation. The act of “spirit-naming” is an act of decolonization; for example, First Nations have replaced the colonial names of their communities with new names in their Indigenous languages. The term “Two-Spirit” re-affirms for Indigenous LGBTQ+ people that we are linked spiritually to our families, communities, and nations. This affirmation also links us to the spiritual teachings that strengthen our relationship with the natural worlds and dimensions, ex. plant, ani- mal, water, weather, astronomy, etc. From these histories Jeffrey Gibson’s newly commissioned immersive installation of MASS MoCA “POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT” takes shape and follows Gibson’s highly celebrated United States representation at the 60th edition of La Biennale di Venezia. Gibson is known for creating installations, performances, paintings, and sculpture that elevate and provide visibility to queer and Indigenous communities, whose cultural narratives have been historically marginalized. Throughout the run of the exhibition, the project will host a series of performances by Indigenous creatives from across North America. Gibson views the exhibition as an invitation to other Indigenous creatives to contribute to a space where difference is not only considered, it is celebrated. The installation features seven aspirational and newly constructed oversized garments, which are adorned with beads and found materials, that have been organized in kaleidoscopic patterns and are suspended from the ceiling on tipi poles or worn during performances. These works are informed by various faith-based regalia and club culture — paying homage to the past while signaling hope for the future. The installation also offers an exploration into the term “two-spirit”, a third gender which is both, and neither, male or female and is often embraced by many Indigenous individuals and communities to encompass gender and spiritual identity. The exhibition includes the 1992 documentary “Two Spirit People” by Michel Beauchemin, Lori Levy, and Gretchen Vogel, which features Indigenous two-spirit individuals discussing the term and their identities as creatives on the streets of the Bay Area. A new video installation, suspended from the ceiling, accompanies the documentary harnessing both contemporary and early drag culture that facilitates in creating a club-like atmosphere in the first half of the gallery. Titled “Your Spirit Whispers in My Ear” (2024), the collection of videos are edited by Sancia Miala Shiba Nash with a soundtrack by Patrick “Reachout” Coll and the material for the videos is crowd-sourced from more than 20 Indigenous two-spirit individuals, DJs, drag performers, academics, and activists. A mirrored, multi-colored wall bisects the gallery space, end-to-end and floor-to-ceiling reflecting the videos and other works in the galleries creating a kaleidoscopic vision for visitors. Seven,12×12-foot fused glass performance stages with graphic geometric designs further amplify the experience. Each of the oversized garments will be suspended from the ceiling above its corresponding dance floor, and all seven will be distributed on both sides of the wall. These stages will be the site of many of the performances that will unfold throughout the 18-month exhibition. The exhibition is book-ended in two mezzanine galleries. The lower space contains a new two-channel video depicting Gibson wearing all seven garments in the exhibition, almost unaware of the camera, yet still conscious of being seen. This new video is inspired by legendary performer Leigh Bowery, a longtime influence for Gibson’s work. In particular, Gibson is channeling Bowery’s 1988 performance at the Anthony D’Offay Gallery in London, in which Bowery took up residence in the gallery’s street facing window behind a one way mirror. Each day Bowery tried on different costumes while preening and posing. Though the audience could see him, Bowery could only see himself raising the question of revealing and concealing one’s presence. The upper space will contain a resource space curated with Gibson and Antonia Oliver at the artist’s studio presented in three iterations over the 18-month exhibition; this space will open with a focus on videos, costumes, and texts by Two-Spirit contributors to Gibson’s exhibition.
Contributors: Laura Ortman, Emily Johnson, Martha Redbone, Lou Cornum, Divide and Dissolve, Arielle Twist, Zoon, Raven Chacon, devynn emory, MX Oops and more, and video contributors Sean Stevens and Adrian Snyder, Ty Fierce, Metteba Navi Ho, Carla Rossi / Anthony Hudson, Joseph Pierce, Miko Thomas, Morgan Wallace, Arielle Twist, Lou Cornum, Kairyn Potts, Lady Shug, Beejee (Qahir-beejee Llaneza) Peco, Cocoa Chandelier, Jontay Kahm, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Razelle Benally, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Yoli, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Charlie Amáyá Scott, Kira Xonorika, Evan James Atwood,Theo Jean Cuthand and others.
Photo: Installation view of Jeffrey Gibson: POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA 2024-25. Courtesy of the artist, made with MASS MoCA. Photo: Tony Luong
Info: MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA WAY, North Adams, MA, USA, Duration: 3/11/2025-30/5/2025, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:0-17:00, https://massmoca.org/
