A Time For Change & Round Dancing
Date2020
MediumScreenprints on handmade elk hide drum in a custom frame
Dimensions25 3/4 diameter × 4 1/2 inches (65.4 × 11.4 cm)
Credit LineCollection of J. Wilson Morris
Object numberEX.IR.01
Label TextJeffrey Gibson, a multidisciplinary artist of Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee descent, works to elevate communities and cultural narratives that have been historically marginalized. In A Time For Change & Round Dancing, Gibson printed on a handmade elk hide drum, exploring aspects of Op art and geometric abstraction. The substrate of the elk hide not only serves as a support for ink, but also a material rich with Indigenous histories and meaning. The title Round Dancing refers to the traditional Native American Round Dance, a social and community-based dance that incorporates singing and drumming in a steady rhythmic beat and dancing in concentric circles. The physical form of the work with a central large circle surrounded by small circles emulates the dance itself as the drummers move to the middle while people dance around them.
