The full caption below the photograph that I used for the painting above
reads: "Ill. 6: A Shaman of the Semoq-Beri tribe with the bamboo zither
keranting (recording no. 11)." It comes from the pages inserted in the
album: The Semoi of Malacca.
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| A shaman of the Semoq-Beri |
Recording 11 is the recording illustrated for the Top 100 series, as it was in my previous painting from last week. I then accused myself of exoticism and found myself guilty on using gratuitous nudity. This painting then offers me a bit of redemption, as it is the one and only image that could possibly illustrate the song well. Yet, this is also a depiction of the "other." I've been painting the "other" for most of my life, and it feels strange to paint myself, or my familiar surroundings. As to counter any illusion of moral integrity, I immediately started painting an image I found on the Wikipedia page dedicated to the Senoi.
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| Senoi woman playing the bamboo-zither kereb | |
The full caption reads: "Senoi women and children performing dance-music at Perak River, 1906. Note the head-dresses and girdles. It is impossible to depict the "other" in a fair and subjective way, as there is always projection involved. The above painting belongs to the Western tradition of painting.
Carolyn Niethammer didn't have such a long history available to her when it comes to representing the "other." Her Daughters of the Earth: The Lives and Legends of American Indian Women is nearly fifty years old. For the time her integrity was probably greater that that of many contemporaries. In the introduction she states that she probably isn't without bias. Reading the book there are indeed plenty of instances that show a racist relation between object and subject. Using the format of a zine, I compiled some of the most interesting observations and anecdotes of the book, and drew every image.
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| Daughters of the Earth, cover, 8.5x5.5 in. |
Niethammers representation of Olive Oatman, one of the most famous westerners held captive by Native Americans, is far from accurate. I had happened to read Oatman's story in the Smithsonian Magazine not too long ago and was like "What!" when I read her story told by Niethammer.
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| Two pages from "Daughters of the Earth," 24 p. |
