Jane Brettle

Divers Memories

1994

In this project a group of artists were invited to intervene in the anthropological collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. The group included photographers, painters, sculptors, musicians, writers and performers.

This installation responded to a framed, embroidered skin blanket once belonging to a Navahoe Indian as the focus for the work. This large piece hung on a column supporting the upper gallery. In response I appropriated a fragment of a photograph taken in Yosemite National Park by the revered American photographer Ansel Adams, dyed the resulting image red and placed the ubiquitous musem text - 'new displays are being prepared for this case' - across the image. This was installed as an identically framed piece opposite the original blanket to question both the historical appropriation of land from the American Indian, and the Museum as a site of classification and taste.

Medium: C Type photographic print from dyed silverprint:

Dimensions of original work: 180cms x 180cms