Chris Bower, a MAP member whose 2005 project Moon Europa was partially funded by a grant from the MAP, is in the final stretch of editing We Won’t Bow Down. He has been working on the feature length documentary since Hurricane Katrina. He hopes to be finished with production in spring,but he and his crew are in need of finishing funds to do it right. You can help by donating to their project on Kickstarter.
The history of the Mardi Gras Indian dates back to the 18th century, when African slaves escaped into the swamps surrounding New Orleans and assimilated into tribes like the Choctaw, Seminole and Chickasaw. Liberated Africans and Native Americans were bound together by resistance to slavery, exploitation and oppression; and found their customs, music and dance to be very similar.
After abolition, African Americans began to express their history and culture by “Masking as Indians” during Mardi Gras celebrations. Wearing elaborate headdress and intricately beaded suits, each tribe makes a ceremonial procession through their neighborhood in full regalia to share this tradition with their community and to meet rival tribes in symbolic battle; with traditional music, chants and dance.
Each year tribe members hand-sew a new suit to honor their ancestors and to express a culture that is ancient, mystical and vibrantly alive. Modern day Mardi Gras Indian culture is thriving with amazing variety, creativity, craftsmanship and commitment to; resistance through art, heritage and community, that is as old as this nation.
The film is in the home stretch, the only thing needed now are the funds to cross the finish line. Funding has been exhausted as well as personal finances. To help finish the project please visit the films Kickstarter page.
Justin Kuhn opens at Sean Pace Gallery with "Rubber Side Down"
posted: November 5, 2010
What: Justin Kuhn's "Rubber Side Down" When: Friday, November 19th 7-10pm Where: Sean Pace Gallery 5 Walnut St. Suite 102 Asheville, NC, 28801
"Often in our modern times it's by result of a seemingly unacknowledged and unrewarded work ethic, scrupulous due diligence, and the redundancy of a over-rehearsed self-motivational speech just to place your feet on the floor in the morning that we find ways to survive, to achieve, to put one foot in front of the other. Spit shine your shoes, dust off your jackets, and choose wisely what ammunition's you feel you can carry along the way, for we are once again Pioneers."
Born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania now a supporting resident and local artist of Asheville, NC, Justin Kuhn in conjunction with Sean Pace Gallery, invite you to join us as we bare tribute to our American way of life.
In early Spring of 2008 while attending graduate school at the Yale University School of Art in New Haven, CT, Justin submitted a travel proposal for the Schoelkopf Travel Grant Award competition. After having been awarded a portion of the Grant, he signed the title to a 1996 Honda Shadow VLX600 motorcycle. Unmentioned in the proposal was his inability to ride such a machine. After less than one month, a slightly dead patch of grass behind his parents house in the figure of an '8', and a stamped seal of approval from the Pennsylvania experienced riders course; that summer on June 6, 2008 accompanied by sixty five pounds of gear, one camera, and an undetermined sense of self, he set out to traverse the land of this country coast to coast. As anyone can imagine, over the course of the next 73 days he would experience a lavish ensemble of events. By the end of his travels having amassed a collection of nearly 2,500 photographs he now presents to you, two years later, some of his personal selections. Also featured in this exhibition will be four new woodcut paintings done by the artist since his recent relocation here to Asheville last January. "My hope for this exhibition is to share with the viewer my celebratory notions and humbled visions of our time, our history, our place, and our mind set."
That July of 2008, in order to gather the remaining fuel money he would need to make it home Justin invested a portion of his dwindling finances into publishing an online book comprised of thirty images from the trip. Titled, Rubber Side Down, the limited edition of thirty 7" x 9" soft cover coffee table books, by barter and sale, managed to fuel his mission home. All of Justin's personal proceeds from this current exhibition will be used to finance the final completed publication of Rubber Side Down, a full color 160-200 page collection of images depicting his personal 'Americana', accompanied by excerpts of journal entries, tall tales, video stills, and his collection of re-purposed route maps . He hopes to generate enough finance to publish the books needed to send one book to each person(s) he had stayed with along the way. "A long overdue Thank You and tribute of my love for this country".
