By Mimi Wells
Gina Adams’ critically acclaimed exhibit “Its Honor Is Hereby Pledged” at Edgewood College’s art gallery Nov. 1 to Dec. 15 exposes injustices done to indigenous peoples throughout history through treaties made with white settlers sewn onto colonial quilts.
David Wells, director of the Edgewood College Gallery and Ernest Hüpeden’s Painted Forest, said he is always looking for top-quality work that can be a learning tool for students.
“Sometimes that’s about the subject matter, sometimes that’s about the technical expertise that the work is showing,” Wells said.
Wells first contacted Adams three years ago about holding an exhibit at Edgewood when he noticed her quilt series “Its Honor Is Hereby Pledged” was getting critical acclaim. Adams was just in time for this year’s theme of Edgewood’s gallery shows.
“Last year we decided to have a theme for our gallery shows this year, which is ‘Examining Histories, Understanding Truths, and Creating Resilience,’” Wells said.
Wells said he is looking at this theme through a multicultural lens.
“What she (Adams) does is research treaties with various Native cultures that have been broken in various parts of the country,” Wells said.
Wells said Adams buys historical quilts for the series and sews calico letters onto the quilts that spell out the historical treaties, which were often purposely confusing in nature.
“[Adams] is making commentary on the kind of language that was used in these treaties which often … was used to be confusing or oddly stated,” Wells said.
“[The art] is pointed political commentary about how treaties have been broken and historical trauma. They [Native peoples] were removed from their land, their children were taken away from them.”
Wells also said he’s not sure there’s is any specific take-away. “But I think it’s trying to show that no matter what our disciplines here at the college, we can examine histories and find a lot of information that we can process and change, and think about what kinds of changes have been made, but still need to be made,” Wells said.
Adams was in residency at the Edgewood College art gallery in the Stream on Nov. 14 and 15.
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