David Gaussoin’s inventive designs blend Indian art’s rich tradition with modern and foreign influences—but those with more rigid interpretations of the genre aren’t always ready.
After graduating college in 1999, renowned
Native American jeweler David Gaussoin travelled the world, touring and
backpacking through Europe and Africa. He found new people and new approaches
to art and saw the works of Michelangelo, Picasso and the French
Impressionists. He brought it home with him to Santa Fe and began to put these
new influences into his jewelry—and it looked different.
Now Gaussoin—who is Picuris Pueblo and
Navajo, and comes from a long line of native jewelers—makes decidedly modern
jewelry. One recent piece: a tufa-cast bracelet with organic offshoots of
silver, as if the metal is sprouting plantlike tendrils.
But Gaussoin ran into problems.
“They thought my jewelry was too radical,”
Gaussoin says, “that I wasn’t following the established rules of Indian
jewelry.”
When Gaussoin and his brother Wayne Nez began
to make jewelry in their new style, Gaussoin says both Native artists and
non-Native buyers didn’t like what they were doing. Indian Market, as the
largest Native American art market in the world, played a role in how their
jewelry was received, Gaussoin says—and, through its standards and judging
system, was “dictating what was right and wrong” in Indian art.
“I’m an artist,” Gaussoin says. “No one
should be telling me what’s right or wrong, what’s traditional or
non-traditional when it comes to art. Whenever someone puts standards on what
is traditional or non-traditional, I call that censorship.”
Steven Wall, a Chippewa artist and instructor
the Institute of American Indian Arts, calls it the Imagined Aesthetic—a
concept of Indian art imagined by the non-Indian buyer. Indian art, the concept
goes, must conform to certain forms—like the silver and turquoise concha belt or
geometric rugs—to be Indian art.
“That imagined perspective is so powerful,”
Wall says. “People like David and Wayne Gaussoin fought that imagined barrier
and were met with tremendous resistance.”
Wall also points out that it’s not just
non-Natives who want the “old style” work to be the definition of Indian art,
but Native Americans as well. And maybe this shouldn’t come as a surprise. As tribes
struggle to retain traditional customs, ceremonies and languages, hanging on to old ways of making
art—art that has always been an integral part of Native identity—makes sense.
But artists must also support themselves, and
Indian Market is the main source of art sales for many who show there.
“This is people’s livelihood,” Comanche
painter Nocona Burgess says. Burgess, famous for portraits of iconic Native
Americans—as well as pop figures like Marlon Brando and Jimi Hendrix—estimates
he makes over half of his yearly sales at Indian Market. In addition to his pop
culture portraits, Burgess paints abstractly. But, Burgess says, “I
only take my Indians to Market,” because he knows what the market wants.
Still other artists, like Rose Simpson of
Santa Clara Pueblo, don’t show at the Market at all. Simpson is one of a number
of young Native artists making a name for herself. Her ceramic pieces, including a
larger-than-life adobe figure curled in the fetal position left to deteriorate
naturally in a recent installation, challenge personal identity and how we
construct it.
Simpson also has strong views about Indian
Market—views that have occasionally gotten her in trouble with other Native
artists and relatives who see her comments as disrespectful of what’s come
before. Simpson says the struggle with what is Indian in art is a symptom of a
collective “post-colonial stress disorder.”
Simpson, who just finished a master’s degree
at the Rhode Island School of Design in ceramics, will have her new
work “Thesis” on display at Chiaroscuro Gallery on Canyon Road.
“I’m lucky the gallery represents me,” Simpson
says. “I don’t like to deal with buyers; sometimes I’m a little too honest.”
Differing viewpoints aside, Indian Market’s
strength still lies in its people.
“It’s a living gathering,” Simpson says. “I
really love being there and seeing people I love, artists whose work I adore. I
know lots of amazing people I’ve met only because of Indian Market. There’s an
amazing spirit there.”
David Gaussoin will be there, showing his
jewelry. Despite his sometimes rocky history with the Market, Gaussoin—who grew
up helping his mother, renowned jeweler Connie Tsosie-Gaussoin, at her Indian
Market booth—appreciates the Market for its history. And new direction.
“There have been a lot of changes,” he says. “And I’m excited to see where it’s going. My hope is that they’ll encourage the younger artists—but not forget older artists who made Indian Market what it is.”
Indian Market runs from Aug. 20-21. With the
exception of Simpson, all of the artists mentioned in this article will be showing
at Indian Market. Gaussoin, in collaboration with Navajo designer Orlando Dugi,
will show his jewelry on models in an Aug. 18 show at the Museum of
Contemporary Native Art.
Editor's Note: This is an extended version of the original article. To view the shorter print version, click here.
Santa Fe Indian Market
7 am-5 pm
Saturday,
Aug. 20
8 am-5 pm
Sunday, Aug. 21
The Plaza
983-5220
