It’s not often that an art exhibition takes, for its
inspiration, the work of a Canadian musician. But then pop culture icon
Neil Young, with his deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work
and signature nasal tenor, is no ordinary musician.
The exhibit is “Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and Me,”
running at the Aspen Art Museum from Friday, Feb. 15 through Sunday,
April 13. And the song on which the exhibit is based is Young’s
“Pocahontas,” a tragically beautiful journey through America’s physical
and cultural landscape.
The show, in addition to its admittedly esoteric
inspiration, is also a departure from most exhibits at the Aspen Art
Museum in that head curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson allowed another
artist, Jeremy Deller, to curate the entire show.
“I’ve been a fan of Jeremy’s work for a long time,”
she says of the British-born, Turner Prize-winning multimedia artist.
“I got to know him during an extended residency in San Francisco, and
when we started the artist-in-residence program here, I thought he
would be perfect to invite. Some artists do really well outside the
comforts of their own environment, and some don’t. He’s quite
adaptable.”
Jacobson says she had no idea what the final product
would be after giving Deller free reign at the museum, and initial
ideas ranged from a simple art show to a massive fireworks display over
Aspen Mountain. Deller eventually settled somewhere in the middle,
opting for a century-spanning exhibition, a two-hour symposium at the
Aspen Institute and, eventually, a book that will chronicle the whole
process.
“The exhibit really is based on the song,” says
Deller. “(The song) exists on at least two different planes; it’s set
in the present and also in the past, where Young is imagining himself
as a Native American Indian escaping white settlers who are attacking
his encampment. But it’s also about Vietnam, mid-70s America and
materialism.”
The eclectic exhibit features paintings, drawings,
etchings, photos, videos, ledger drawings and even art drawn directly
on the walls of the gallery from the 19th century through the present.
And the unifying connection, aside from the obvious ones featuring
Marlon Brando and the burial site and descendents of Pocahontas, is the
progression of history and differing examples of the American landscape.
“It’s good to see a continuation of history for me,”
Deller says. “Not only does history repeat itself, but we can’t learn
anything from it if we don’t pay attention to it. And in terms of this
idea of landscape, I hope people will see it as much more complicated
than it is. You have traditional landscape art, and then you have
landscapes in the more metaphorical sense.”
By metaphorical landscapes, Deller means images and
works that don’t just depict typical Ansel Adams-esque, grandiose
images of mountains and hillsides. When choosing the works for the
exhibit, he instead focused on pieces that have historical significance
or elicit a reaction that the viewer can somehow identify with the
American experience. Included works range from photos taken by American
soldiers in Iraq, pre-war desert images littered with tanks, Marlon
Brando speaking at a rally during the civil rights movement and sketch
books where Native Americans recreated daily tribe life and attacks
through drawings.
But the idea for the exhibition actually stemmed
from Deller’s desire to host a symposium that dealt with many of his,
and Young’s, major interests: the American identity, history, politics,
war, medical intervention, information technologies and music. The
event, taking place from 6-8 p.m. on Feb. 15, at the Paepcke Auditorium
on the Aspen Institute campus, will feature four speakers: Daniel
Bertrand Monk, the Cooley Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and
professor of geography at Colgate University; Jonathan Kunilholm,
co-founder of Tackle Design and Open Prosthetic Project; Major General
Matthew P. Caulfield, former Deputy Director of the Military Office of
the White House; and Captain Rye Carcott, co-editor of Armed Conflict
in Africa and co-founder of Carolina for Kiberia, Kenya.
“I just really hope that people are stimulated when
they leave,” Deller says. “People will certainly interpret the exhibit
and symposium in different ways, but just having people take a look at
their history and their landscapes should provoke some pretty
interesting thoughts.”
And perhaps a British artist curating a show filled
with several foreign artists based on a song by a Canadian musician can
provide just the right level of objectivity to truly analyze the
American landscape.
damien@aspendailynews.com
