COLLECTION NAME:
Undergraduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Shan Goshorn: Materiality of Indigenous Activist Artwork
Creator:
Williams, Kirsten Anne
Subject:
Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
“Shan Goshorn (1957–2018), an Oklahoma -based Eastern Band of Cherokee artist, created work in the late 20th and early 21st centuries promoting the recognition and education about the injustices, crimes, and wrongful acts done to Indigenous people of North America. Beginning in the 1980s, Goshorn worked in hand-coloring photography, as well as in other media, such as paint, glass, and silver. At the start of her artistic career after college, Goshorn worked primarily in photography, and manipulated photographs to fit activist messages. The technique she became most known for during her career was basket-weaving, specifically using the traditional Cherokee double-weave. Goshorn was self-taught in a variety of difficult Cherokee basketweaving techniques, such as the Chief’s Daughter and Spider Web patterns. The baskets Goshorn created were made with non-traditional materials such as cut-up splints of copied photographs and documents related to the history of the Indigenous people of the United States. The photocopies and documents included treaties and compacts, such as the Cherokee Nation- Oklahoma Tobacco Compact. Her work was also made in response to important law amendments such as the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, signed in 2013 by President Barack Obama, which gave Indigenous people the right to prosecute non-Indigenous people on Indigenous land, responding to male violence against Indigenous women. By incorporating a variety of non-traditional materials and techniques in both her photography and basket-woven works, Goshorn tackles subjects of Indigenous struggle, continuity, and evolution. This thesis will explore Shan Goshorn’s technique, subject matter, and activism in her artwork through the lens of materiality and will attempt to fill a gap in the scholarship on contemporary Indigenous artwork.” –Abstract
Keywords: activism, basket-weaving, Cherokee, Cherokee Nation-Oklahoma Tobacco Compact, Chief’s Daughter, double-weave, Shan Goshorn, Indigenous, material, photography, Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
Keywords: activism, basket-weaving, Cherokee, Cherokee Nation-Oklahoma Tobacco Compact, Chief’s Daughter, double-weave, Shan Goshorn, Indigenous, material, photography, Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2024-05
Format:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 46 pages, color illustrations)