February 2, 2017 Jimmie Durham The Guardian nd February 2 , 2017 February by2, 2017Travis Diehl Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World review – America's native son finally comes homeJimmie Durham: At the Center of the World Thereview Native American – artist’s America's most trenchant political native statement son remai nsfinally his choice to comeslive abroad – makinghome his first US retrospective all the more potent By Travis Diehl in Los Angeles The Native American artist’s most trenchant political statement remains his choice to live abroad – making his first US retrospective all the more potent Jimmie Durham’s retrospective, At the Center of the World, curated for the Hammer Museum by Anne Ellegood, landed almost prophetically in the aftermath of a big American week: the new presidentBy Travis loosed Diehl the in Losdogs Angeles of oil on the Standing Rock water protectors, withdrew funds from reproductive service providers, and pulled up the drawbridge against refugees. Jimmie Durham’s retrospective, At the Center of the World, curated for the Hammer Museum by Durham,Anne Ellegood,a Cherokee landed born almostin Arkansas prophetically but not officially in the aftermath enrolled ofin anya big tribe, American is som week:ething the of newa refugeepresident in his loosed own country, the dogs disinherited of oil on the by Standing centuries Rock of genocide water protectors and displacement., withdrew He funds studied sculpturefrom reproductive in Geneva, but service spent providers the early, and 70s pulledwith the up American the drawbridge Indian againstMovement, refugees petitioning. the United Nations as director of the International Indian Treaty Council. After becoming frustratedDurham, with a Cherokee that particular born in activism, Arkansas he but returned not officially to contemporary enrolled in anyart, tribe,producing is som sharpething- of a wittedrefugee assemblage, in his own bricolage, country, painting,disinherited performance by centuries and of video. genocide Yet Durham’sand displacement. most trenchant He studied politicalsculpture statement in Geneva, remains but thatspent he the choos earlyes 70s to live with abroad the American – which Indianis perhaps Movement, why, despite petitioning countingthe United two documentas,Nations as director two Whitneys, of the International five Venice Biennales,Indian Treaty and Council. the 2017 After Robert becoming Rauschenbergfrustrated with Award that among particular his honors, activism, this he thorough returned andto contemporary essential survey art, is producing the artist’s sharp first -on his wittedown continent. assemblage, bricolage, painting, performance and video. Yet Durham’s most trenchant political statement remains that he chooses to live abroad – which is perhaps why, despite Whencounting Durham two hit documentas, New York, he two found Whitneys, a foothold five withinVenice 80sBiennales,-style identity and the politics; 2017 Robert but he was uneasy.Rauschenberg Alongside Award the overheated among his mystique honors, thisof Jean thorough-Michel and Basquiat essential and survey neo-expressionism is the artist’s first on camehis anown attempt continent. to align modernism with the indigenous cultures it pilfered (see the MoMA’s 1984 Primitivism exhibition), while a multicultural revisionism culminated in the radically diverse 1993When Whitney Durham Biennial hit New (which York, included he found Durham), a foothold but within could 80sdo little-style to identity diversify politics; the canon. but he Into was thisuneasy. mix, Durham’s Alongside earliest the overheated sculptures, mystique bright scrap of Jean-wood-Michel totems Basquiat of animals and andneo -people,expressionism stack up thecame stereotypes an attempt of Native to align American modernism craft with– beads, the indigenousshells, turquoise, cultures skulls it pilfered and skins (see – the as ifMoMA’s to give the1984 colonialist Primitivism rubes exhibition),what they came while for. a multicultural Yet their armatures revisionism – a police culminated barrier in as the the radically forelegs diverse of a puma1993 inWhitney Tlunh Datsi Biennial (1984), (which or, inincluded the bead Durham),-covered but Bedia’s could Muffler do little (1985), to diversify a discarded the canon. car part Into – jointhis traditional mix, Durham’s reverence earliest to sculptures,impure realism; bright Native scrap -Manhattanwood totems meets of animals roadkill and and people, the NYPD. stack up the stereotypes of Native American craft – beads, shells, turquoise, skulls and skins – as if to give Durhathem colonialist asserts his rubes individual what theyauthorship came for. over Yet objects their armatures that would – otherwisea police barrier be billed, as the derisively, forelegs of as 'folka puma art' in Tlunh Datsi (1984), or, in the bead-covered Bedia’s Muffler (1985), a discarded car part – join traditional reverence to impure realism; Native Manhattan meets roadkill and the NYPD. Durham asserts his individual authorship over objects that would otherwise be billed, derisively, as 'folk art' Durham’s heritage informs his work mostly insofar as he aims it against the authenticity it’s presumed to follow. Among the objects framed in the suite Six Authentic Things (1989) are “REAL TURQUOISE”, surrounded by native-looking designs; and “REAL FLINT”, a flake of the stone drawing blood from a drawing of a cavalryman. The first panel, tinted like an old treaty, summarizes the artist’s recursive truthiness: it contains, per a handwritten text, “REAL WORDS”. In his essays, poems and titles, Durham uses language with the same puncturing alacrity as he does stones, bones and sticks. The texts appearing directly on the works or on appended flags read less as captions than as the pieces’ own qualifying asides. This postmodern museology definesDurham’s approach to exhibition making. It’s reiterated in On Loan from the Museum of the American Indian (1985), which features such “artifacts” as Pocahontas’s panties (in fact the bottom of an exotic dancer’s feathery costume) and a handprint rendered in the artist’s own blood (“COLOR ENHANCED”). Here, in the crude idiom of racial identity, Durham none too subtly asserts his individual authorship over objects that would otherwise be billed, collectively and derisively, as “folk art”. After moving to Europe in 1994, Durham took on western art at large; stone no longer signified just arrowheads and jewelry, but serpentine marble, Murano glass, and Roman ruins. As for the presuppositions of contemporary art, some colleagues fared better than others. He mocked Joseph Beuys’s shamanic attitudes at every opportunity, while Homage to David Hammons (1997) at once smashes and reaffirms the readymade by stoning a porcelain urinal. In Anti- Brancusi (2005), a foot-shaped rock polished by the River Po sits atop a stack of cardboard boxes – among them the carton for a urinal, and shoebox for New Balance sneakers – placing High Modernism alongside less vaunted but arguably equal notions of form. Durham’s knack for keeping so-called cultural achievements in perspective is evident in one of the show’s most discerning juxtapositions. His Arc de Triomphe for Personal Use (1996) is a freestanding doorway made from posts, branches and a thin stand; painted red, blue and white, and held together by padlocks. Across the room is its double: Forbidden Things, 1993, a metal detector made of oak planks. Such a long view of human nature can pass for prophecy. The several Poles to Mark the Center of the World (1995) that lend the show its title, simple carvings sometimes adorned with tags or mirrors, easily skewer the western-centric mindset. Yet, as with all of Durham’s work, there is tenderness in the irony; the pieces declare individual sovereignty, but remind itinerant monarchs to stay humble. This sentiment runs from the simplest stick to the most complex assemblage: In Something … Perhaps a Fugue, or an Elegy (2005), the viewer faces their reflection through a tangle of pipes, A/V gear, leering busts, and the muzzle of a BB rifle. At the finish, on the reverse of two signs that read STOP and TOP, are two citations – a NYMEX listing for sweet light crude, and a quote from Nobel laureate José Saramago: “We worry, and are full of anxiety. We think the world will demand an explanation. But in fact the world has already moved on, and has forgotten us.” It’s a fitting double slogan from an artist whose own retrospective underscores the impermanence of everything from art to institutions to the people and stones they’re made of. At the Venice Biennale, where Durham first exhibited Something …, he represented no nation. .