| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
October Issue 2005
McCrory Gallery in Columbia, SC, Features Works by Will Moreau Goins
The
McCrory Gallery in Columbia will present the exhibition, Sacred
Spaces and Images of Individuals photographs of Will Moreau Goins,
which will be on view from Oct. 1 - 29, 2005.
The photographic images presented attempt to dispel misconceptions about Native art and yet seem to have classical origins and familiar expressions. The exhibit consists of over 25 photographs which include archival photographs, anthropological photographs, Native American Indian portraits; cultural traditions in action, dancers and other performance artists; selected sacred sites and ceremonies.
Goins is a resident of Columbia with upstate Cherokee ancestry from Oconee County. As a youngster, he became familiar with the classical images of early Catlin paintings and others of Native American Indians in the southeastern colonial period and the famous paintings of Native people on the plains that have shaped our American myths and Hollywood cinema. He was also influenced by the early 1800 photographs of Edward Curtis, and others that depicted portraits of Natives on the plains. Combating these stereotypes and perceptions, and also trying to add, real depictions of contemporary Natives, in the maintenance of their identity and culture, to this cannon of images, Goins decided to express himself behind the camera, learning film photography, documentary and photojournalism at the undergraduate and the graduate level.
Goins' images presented in this exhibition are more traditional Native American portraits, not unlike Catlin or Curtis, he employs nature and creation for his photographic depictions. Unlike Curtis and Catlin, these images are action and candid. His images are focused on the traditions and culture that is especially alive and being expressed throughout the United States and among many tribes and individuals. Goins pays special attention to sacred sites, ceremonies, chants, locations and regal national attire. The images in this exhibition express a sense of place, sacred spaces. They also share a strong narrative tradition, a concern with craft traditions, issues of race and an almost cloying sense of the past, of memory and history. These images are both pluralistic, nationalistic and regional. Some of the images invoke memory and history; others challenge the viewer to examine our relationship to America's history and contemporary Native America. Some are broader and tell more universal stories that incorporate myth and allegory.
Goins, refusing to be categorized as a "Native American" artist, who is only capable of Native American themes, also has toured many countries capturing and learning from classical and old world artistic themes, individuals, cultures, and structures, such as the Library at Ephesus in Turkey or Ramsey's Egyptian Obelisk. Each of his pictures tells a story or asks a question. Some of his photographs express topics such as racial, social, economic, and environmental justice and human rights.
Goins has lectured and performed throughout the country and abroad. He served as editor and author of The People Speak, an anthology of SC Native Americans, which features some of his photographs. Goins has presented and lectured at over 27 colleges and universities. He was a featured artist and presenter in the 1991 lecture series, Art and the Native American, Perceptions, Reality and Influences, sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies and the Department of Art History and Pennsylvania State University. Goins is a Native American Storyteller, dancer, cultural presenter, and serves on the Speakers Bureau of the SC Humanities Council. He is also a member of numerous academic, research, and professional organizations.
Goins is an active member of the National Visual and Native Crafts Organization, ATLATL, which serves indigenous peoples. In 1998, Goins received a distinguished honors for his photographs in the Eighth Annual North Carolina Native American Juried Fine Art Exhibition held at the Indian UNITY Conference. His work was later to be featured in the exhibition, Cultural Connections: Reclaimed Traditions, at the Guilford Native American Art Gallery, at the Greensboro Cultural Center at Festival Park, in Greensboro, NC. Goins was also a featured artist in the exhibition, 170 Years of Cherokee Arts and Crafts: An Exhibition Celebrating South Carolina's Cherokee Folk Ways, Handiwork and Crafts, which was a cultural centerpiece for the National Congress of American Indian Annual Convention at the Myrtle Beach, SC, in 1998.
Many of the images in this exhibition have been previously shown in various installations in the Columbia area including the Visitor's Center Art Gallery of the University of South Carolina and the Casey Historical Museum and the Goodall Gallery of the Spears Music/Art Center at Columbia College. Goins work has been exhibited in many different art shows, galleries and universities over the years.
In conjunction with this exhibition the
gallery will host special events in celebration of "Indian
summer" and the fall cultural season including Storytelling
and Gallery Talks, including:
Oct. 8, 2005, 11am-1pm - Children's Story Hour with Will Moreau
Goins.
Oct. 9, 2005, at 6pm - Gallery Talk with Will Moreau Goins.
For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 803/400-1205.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2005 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2005 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.