Fifty Shades of White

Quick-to-See Smith has long used humor in her art to prompt the viewer to reconsider notions of Euro-American cultural and racial authority, as well as the historic and current policies and attitudes toward Indigenous cultures.

In "Fifty Shades of White" Quick-to-See Smith presents a conventional map of the United States in varying shades of white paint, which contrasts with the multi-colored blocks of neighboring countries. Instead of labeling each state with its name, the artist inserts descriptive names of various white paints carried by hardware store brands, such as “White Peach” for Georgia and “White Corn” for Kansas. In doing so Quick-to-See Smith humorously challenges the colonial narrative of Manifest Destiny, the belief that the spread of Euro-American culture across the continent was inevitable.