Birdman Rising: Conversations beyond Colonialism
Posted May 22, 2018
Jeff Thomas, internationally renowned Urban Iroquois photographer, will visit the SIUE campus this March to open a show of his work, titled Birdman Rising: Conversations beyond Colonialism. The show will feature photographs Thomas took during a prior visit to the area, including photographs of Native American artifacts from the SIUE University Museum collections and landscapes at local Native sites such as Cahokia Mounds. The Birdman is a powerful symbol of Cahokia and also represented in the University Museum collections. As the title of the show suggests, the portrayal of these artifacts and local landscapes in Thomas’s art seeks to engage the audience in a dialogue with Native Americans in the contemporary world.
The show will be open and free to the public at the Edwardsville Art Center from March 23 through April 20. Thomas will be at the opening Friday, March 23 from 4-6 pm. He will also present a public lecture at Peck Hall (Room 2304) on the SIUE campus on Wednesday, March 21, at 7:30 pm.
Thomas is a guest of Native American Studies and its contributing departments, Anthropology, Historical Studies, and Philosophy. His visit is made possible by a generous grant from the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences Targeted Funding Initiative.