BOBBY C. MARTIN m artin’s “Emigrant Indians #1” likewise he layers two separate maps of Kansas atop one another: a 1950s Rand McNally roadmap and an 1836 map of tribal peoples removed to the region. The historical map includes the phrase “Emigrant Indians.” Martin underscores the irony of a U.S. government document that describes Native peoples as “emigrés,” as if they had any choice in their dispossession. He also includes figures from a photograph his mother took in examines dispossession, exile and memory through the subject matter of mapping. Here,
Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee [Creek], b. 1957), “Emigrant Indians #1,” 2018. Five-color screenprint on Crane Lettra paper, 20 × 20 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase. GMOA 2021.260.
the early 1950s while a student at Haskell Technical Institute (now Indian Nations University) in Lawrence, Kansas. At center, that year’s homecoming king and queen appear in full regalia. With his references to land, surveying, “homecom- ing” and emigration, Martin uses humor and irony to address Indigenous histories of forced removal.
Kathryn Hill, curatorial assistant in contemporary art
13
13
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software