SAIC Galleries - Graduate Exhibition May 2024 - Documentation by Jonas Mueller-Ahlheim
The Right to Look, The Right to Have
At the Field Museum last January, displays in the Hall of the Northwest Coast and Arctic Peoples were covered in response to updated federal regulations under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). These coverings—an interim step as the museum works with descendant communities—prompted visitor interactions that echoed the broader issues of visibility and entitlement.
Some vitrines were covered externally with brown paper and blue tape, while others remained lit but were veiled with thin black curtains. Visitors tore holes in the paper, and binder-clipped curtains were easily parted. Document-sized paper signs taped to the vitrines explained the coverings, though these signs were often also subject to tearing.
These temporary coverings inadvertently became a new display: a record of visitors' insistence on the right to look. This insistence unfolded within an institution re-evaluating its collections in dialogue with the communities to whom these ceremonial objects belong.
I can’t help but see a parallel between these gestures of insistence and the persistent narratives of my ancestors, English settlers in the northeast. Their accounts, filled with words like “ceaseless” and “mighty,” form part of a family history proudly displayed in reunion banquet rooms, alongside a giant family tree and appeals to join the DAR.
These images now reside within a perperformative essay created in collaboration with Selena Kearney. Through spoken texts, we explore how our distinct heritages shape and mediate our access to the museum’s spaces and collections. Central to the performance is an act of transmission—a gesture of connection and reverence for sacred Coast Salish objects held within the museum.
