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Horse power: The entrance to the new Native American art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum features Charles Cary Rumsey’s “The Dying Indian” statue in front of a modern mural that reads, “I’m gonna
run with every minute I can borrow.” Photo by Rose Adams
Native speaker
Exhibit contrasts art by, and art about , indigenous Americans
HBy Rose Adams e’s giving us a fresh look at old
A Native American artist
is using centuries-old sculptures and
artifacts from the Brooklyn Museum’s
collection to weave a new story about
indigenous people. “When Fire is Applied
to a Stone it Cracks,” on display at the
Brooklyn Museum until 2021, juxtaposes
stereotypical portrayals of American
Indians with colorful new art by artist
Jeffrey Gibson to show that Native
Americans are a vital, living community,
the show’s curator said.
“He’s looking at history and the
way history has been told and telling a
counter-narrative,” said Eugenia Tsai.
The show opens with a well-known
piece from the Museum’s collection:
Charles Cary Rumsey’s 1904 sculpture
“Dying Indian,” which features a slumped
figure on an emaciated horse. Gibson
created a pair of moccasins and slipped
them onto the bronze figure, which gives
the morbid piece a lively pop, and placed
it in front of a vibrant mural of modern
song lyrics.
Throughout the show, Gibson’s
brightly-colored sculptures, weaving, and
stained glass contrast with the European
art’s focus on death and decline.
“There was this whole trope of the
‘dying Indian’ and this image perpetuated
by Europeans and Americans that Indians
were a dying race,” said Tsai. “One of the
things Jeff is doing is working against
that.”
The exhibit also highlights pottery
and photographs by Native Americans,
demonstrating the wide variety of
indigenous art, Tsai explained.
“People seem to have an idea of how
Native American art should be, and
Gibson really wants to show its variety
and that it’s always been hybrid, it’s
always been contemporary ,” she said.
Gibson, who has Choctaw and
Cherokee heritage, took the show’s
name, “When Fire is Applied to a
Stone it Cracks,” from an Irish proverb.
The fire represents Native American
innovation, while the stone is the static
stereotypes created by Europeans,
Gibson explained.
“I read ‘fire’ in this quote to describe
the innovative making, use of materials,
transformative techniques, and the
survivalist ethic of Indigenous people,”
he wrote.
The show critiques traditional
portrayals of Native Americans, but it
does not seek to shame or chastise the
non-Native works, Tsai clarified. Instead,
it showcases the power and life within
Native American art and communities,
Tsai said.
“Images of joy, images of happiness,
images of community and family where
subjects weren’t posing for the camera
but maybe were caught in their daily
lives — that can be a powerful form of
resistance,” she said.
“When Fire is Applied to a Stone it
Cracks” at the Brooklyn Museum 200
Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in
Prospect Heights, (718) 638–5000, www.
brooklynmuseum.org. On display Wed–
Sun; 11 am–6 pm through January, 2021.
$16 suggested admission.
Your entertainment
guide Page 41
art.
Police Blotter ..........................8
Opinion ................................... 26
Letters .................................... 27
Standing O ............................28
Camp Guide ..........................29
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HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 4 IFE, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2020
BY ROSE ADAMS
The family of a man who
was shot in the face by immigration
agents in Gravesend
last week is called for a federal
investigation of the incident
just days before fi ling
a civil suit against the allegedly
trigger happy federal
agent, advocates say.
Erick Diaz Cruz, represented
by Katie Rosenfeld
and Scout Katovich of Emery
Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady
LLP, filed the lawsuit in
the Eastern District of New
York to seek damages for
the shooting, which lodged
a bullet in Diaz-Cruz’s neck
for life and caused vision
loss in his left eye, the complaint
said.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement offi cers were trying
to arrest an allegedly undocumented
Gravesend man
at his W. 12th Street house on
Feb. 6, when Diaz-Cruz intervened.
An ICE offi cer shot at
the 26-year-old, and the bullet
ricocheted off Diaz-Cruz’s
hand and hit his cheek, according
to witnesses.
First responders rushed
Diaz-Cruz to the Maimonides
Medical Center in stable condition.
He underwent several
surgeries two days later, and
was released from the hospital
on Wednesday night, his
family said.
“Erick came out of surgery
around 1:30 pm; surgery that
lasted several hours where
the bullet he had since Thursday
was taken out,” a family
An ICE agent shot a man in Gravesend. Photo by Todd Maisel
member wrote in a Facebook
post on Feb. 8. “Surgeons at
Maimonides hospital did an
excellent job, right now he is
in recovery.
Diaz-Cruz has legal immigration
papers, the Consulate
General of Mexico in New
York told reporters, while the
suspect of the ICE investigation
is undocumented. In a
statement, ICE claimed that
the suspect is “a twice-removed
illegal alien from Mexico
with a 2011 assault conviction
in New York City” who
they arrested on Feb. 6 because
of a recent traffi c stop.
ICE offi cials are holding
Avendano-Hernandez in a
New Jersey facility, advocates
say.
Diaz-Cruz’s family, meanwhile,
is calling on federal
authorities and the Attorney
General to investigate the
shooting, according to several
activists.
On Feb. 16, local activist
groups held a candlelight
vigil near the family’s Gravesend
house to stand in solidarity
with Diaz-Cruz and
Avendano-Hernandez, drawing
dozens of supporters, who
expressed their support for
the family.
The family’s neighbor,
Fabiola Mendieta, has also
started a fundraiser to cover
the family’s medical expense,
which had raised more than
$6,500 as of Feb. 18.
ICE representatives did
not respond to a request for
comment.
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The COLD NYPD took the lead on the investigation following the shooting.
CASE ICE shooting victim in Gravesend fi les civil lawsuit against federal agent
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