21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City

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“A View From Within Under The Skin” and 7 Photographs
21c Museum Hotels Oklahoma City
900 W Main St, Oklahoma City, OK 73106
August 2017 – Febuary 12, 2018

The way we see others and how one is seen has been a subject that I have had in my life since I was small. I am both Native American and Caucasian, but growing up I felt more times than I care to count that I was not enough of one or the other and that pull made me question all parts of myself. If I did not look like _____ could I be ______? Where did I fit if I was not a part of this or that group? I have had conversations with many that are from other races and that too was a struggle as well. Is my skin too dark or not dark enough, the texture of my hair or the accent that I speak with. All of this history, this past came to a head one day while getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, folders, colored pencils, and crayons. They had to have 4 sets of 24 crayons each and we had leftovers from sets of the past years, some colors had never been used, and we were combining them together so we’d know how many new boxes would be required. The kids were talking about their friends at the new school and friends of their past school. In the conversation, they were describing the children “the girl with the yellow hair, the boy with the brown skin”, in a very casual descriptive manner with no malice to the differences. This made me think more about how we see people and how one is judged. The smell of the crayons, the vivid colors, and the thoughts of my youth brought me to this crayon project. How we change in our viewpoints of people, and how we judge people based on race and color. We are all one below that surface, that surface of skin, no matter the color, the shape, or the origin.

There are 12 girls and each girl is made in all the 24 colors in a Crayola Crayon box making a total 288 girls. I think if we could see ourselves as all the colors in the crayon box in all the shades we would be kinder we would be able to feel if just for a moment another’s life and our world could change in such a way that kids don’t worry about if they are too light or too dark or if their hair is the right texture to belong.

 

Here-Holly Wilson
HERE
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
36″ x 24″

 

Awakening-Holly Wilson
AWAKENING
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

 

Holly Wilson-In Song
IN SONG
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

 

Let Go by Holly Wilson
LET GO
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
36″ x 24″

 

 

Holly Wilson-Back
BACK
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

 

Holly Wilson-As They Sleep
AS THEY SLEEP
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

 

Holly Wilson-The Strong
THE STRONG
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/8″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″

 

ER by Holly Wilson
ER
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
36″ x 24″

 

A View From Within Under The Skin by Holly Wilson
A View From Within Under The Skin by Holly Wilson
A View From Within Under The Skin by Holly Wilson
A View From Within Under The Skin by Holly Wilson
A View From Within Under The Skin - Detail by Holly Wilson
A View From Within Under The Skin – Detail by Holly Wilson

A View From Within Under The Skin by Holly Wilson
A View From Within Under The Skin by Holly Wilson
BLOODLINE-Holly Wilson

Art Prize Nine

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September 20 – October 8, 2017
Bloodline
Art Prize 9 Location
Monroe Community Church
800 Monroe NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Voting Code: 65643

http://www.artprize.org/65643

It is the stories of family, history, and identity that brought me to “Bloodline”. It is a long trail of my Native American history, my bloodline. To be ‘on the Rolls’ as an American Indian you must prove a quantum of blood verified through birth and death records until you match up to a name on the official “Dawes Rolls.” As I began walking through the past to document my blood, with the names and some faces, I wanted to hear them speak and tell their story. I wanted them to be counted.

The figures walk across a Locust tree base that came down in a storm. It is cut lengthwise exposing the rough center revealing the lines that show its life and history. I de-barked the exterior but kept the curve of the tree and its raw surface. You see the figures walking through time—their life above and the tree’s life below.

The Cigar Figures come from a childhood Native American story that my mother told of the “Stick People.” The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name; if you went with them, you were never heard from again. She never described the figures and I was always drawn to the idea of what they looked like. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past—a complicated narrative of loss, survival, and resilience. The figures are made from real cigars and found sticks cast in bronze. The faces are the ancestors from my past as far back as I can trace.

There are sections for each generation, beginning with my children. Though I only have two, there are five figures. Each life is counted and the children who did not survive are remembered with a place on the wood in history; their forms small and their heads bowed. Next, I have my section with my sisters and brother followed by my mother’s and father’s history weaving back and forth. When hung, the light casts a shadow of the figures on the wall. This shadow represents memory for me. Like a shadow, these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.

BLOODLINE
Bronze, Patina and Locust Wood
29″ x 22′ x 9″, 2015
$120,000

Bloodline-Holly Wilson
BLOODLINE
Bloodline-Holly Wilson
BLOODLINE
Bloodline-Holly Wilson
BLOODLINE
Bloodline-Holly Wilson
BLOODLINE
Gathering-Holly Wilson

“Return from Exile” Traveling Group Exhibition

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August  21 – December 8, 2017
Fine Art Museum
John W. Bardo Fine & Performing Arts Center,
Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723
828.227.7211
www.wcu.edu

January-May, 2018 (exact dates TBD)
Museum of the Southeast American Indian
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Pembroke, North Carolina
www.uncp.edu

 

Gathering-Detail-Holly Wilson

GATHERING

Bronze, Patina and Locust Wood
28” x 16.5” x 5.5”, 2015

$12,000
Available Through the Studio

When I was young we lived on a mountain in Cherokee, NC, my father taught at the Indian School for several years. My memories have no words from that time just images, some of running the woods, others of going up and down the winding stairs to go to school. The “Gathering” is my interpretation of that part of my life; my coming home to the place and to the people I am a part of.

The wood is from a Locust tree. It is cut lengthwise; it exposes the rough center of the tree and the lines, the lines of the tree show its history. This wood is cut on the angle to be the mountain I lived upon, and the mountain we all climb during life.

When “Gathering” is hung the light cast’s shadows of the figures on the wall, these shadows represent for me memories. Memories cannot be held they have no words, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.

I used my Cigar Figures to represent my family in “Gathering”. These figures come from a Native American story of my childhood that my mother told of the “Stick People”. The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name, she never described the figures and I was drawn to the idea of what they looked like for most of my life. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past. The figures are made of real cigars and found sticks. I create molds of the cigars and then cast them and the sticks in bronze. The faces are of the people from my past and my present.