LIKE A HAMMER

Jeffrey Gibson uses a wide range of media to create conceptually complex, visually vibrant works. Starting his career as a painter, he pushed the boundaries of the medium, building up layers of pigmented acrylic that fought to escape the surface. His sculptural work ranges from organic forms created with the most inorganic materials to layered constructions of repurposed and found objects. He draws from various cultural influences-club culture, song lyrics, minimalism, and fashion-and employs materials as diverse as oil paint and fuorescent light tubes, a mix that reflects his equally complex identity. His dialogue with traditionally Native-American materials, such as hide and beadwork, confronts and challenges perceptions and expectations. LIKE A HAMMER, an installation and performance, is an amalgam of many of these disparate sources. Like the title's source, the Civil Rights-era folk song "If I had a Hammer," the work is both hopeful and defiant. At first glance, the work ppears to draw on traditional Native forms, such as hide robes, the sound of the drum, and metal jingles. Despite the outward appearance of the performance as Native cultural practice-an easy presumption, since the artist is Choctaw and of Cherokee heritage-this work is far more nuanced than it seems.
Text written by Curator Kathleen Ash Milby for the exhibition catalog.