R E V IE W E D
Hide:
Skin as
M aterial
and
Metaphor
By Beverly Sanders
Tw o m akers zuho fin d in skin a m edium f o r
revealin g person al statem ents in w ays th a t are
sim ultaneously sophisticated a n d p rim a l.
George Gustav Heye Center
Smithsonian National Museum
of the American Indian
New York,
NY
Part One: Sonya Kelliher-Combs
and Nadia Myre
Mar. 6 - Aug. i, 2010
nmai.si.edu
Part Two o f “H ide ” w ill be at the museum
Sept. 4,2010
-
fa n . 16,2011.
032 american craft aug/scp 10
Animal skins—hides—have played an im-
portant role in traditional Native Ameri-
can culture and identity, and the National
Museum of the American Indian has regu-
larly exhibited such venerable objects as
beaded deerskin garments and paintings on
buffalo hide. But this two-part exhibition,
curated by Kathleen Ash-Milby, is not
about tradition. Contemporary artists who
are known in the art world but retain strong
ties to their Native communities were in-
vited to address skin as an actual art mate-
rial and as a vehicle for comments on a
range of social issues. The first part high-
lights two makers known for multimedia
work who find in skin or its representation
a medium for revealing personal statements
in ways that are simultaneously sophisti-
cated and primal.
Alaskan-born Sonya Kelliher-Combs
(Inupiaq/Athabascan) combines organic
and synthetic materials in works that con-
vey intimacy in their tactility, yet are baf-
fling in their hidden meanings. In the series
Walrus Family Portraits, she layers ghostly
pouch-shaped walrus stomachs within a
medium of acrylic polymer, augmenting the
texture with nylon threads, glass beads and
reindeer fur. The surface is mottled and
bumpy; the colors enhance the play of light.
The hanging threads remind one of fur trim
on a parka.
The pouch form reappears three-dimen-
sionally in Kelliher-Combs’s wall installa-
tion
Sm all Secrets,
a row of diminutive fin-
gertip-shaped containers made of walrus
stomach bristling with human hair, glass
beads and nylon thread. They resemble del-
icate empty shells that once enclosed a form
or substance.
Common Thread,
a similar but
larger installation, comprises three rows of
pouches, stitched from reindeer and sheep
rawhide rather than stomach membrane.
Even more redolent of her Alaska heri-
tage is her series Brand, in which Kelliher-
Combs has brought together walrus stom-
ach, seal intestines, reindeer, polar bear,
elk and moose fur, seal skin and the like,
as well as acrylic polymer, nylon thread,
paper and cotton to create 15 panels. She
aggressively “processes” these skins, stitch-
ing them or branding them with circular
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Kelliher-Combs photos Kevin G. Smith.
