The Wheel
The Wheel is a project honoring and observing lands once described as Indian Territory. Cultural narratives inform this project, situated in places of forced relocation – and especially areas near the terminus of the Trail of Tears. The name of the project comes from the lottery wheel used to auction off native land during the period of removal from southeastern states.
Symbolically, a wheel is a metaphor for historical cycles and the generational stories where privilege and power collide with indigenous groups.
Damen Washington – Cherokee Videographer.
Location of 1864 Marine battle – Pleasant Bluff, Tamaha OK.
Cross at Mount Sequoyah - Fayetteville AR
Roland Pinault – First Nation (Ojibwa descent)
Arrowhead Resort on HWY 10 leading into Tahlequah – Cherokee Nation.
Site of 1872 Goingsnake Tragedy – Beck-Hildebrand Mill.
Catalpa Tree, Hunters Home – Park Hill OK.
1883 Choctaw Capital – Tuskahoma OK.
Jack Baker – Cherokee historian.
Woodrow Proctor – Bunch OK. Tribal Council United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee.
Seminary Columns standing at Northeastern State University – Tahlequah OK.
Old Schoolhouse in Goingsnake District – Colcord OK.
Dryplate image made with Seroco Camera – Hunters Home, Park Hill OK.
Tintype of Brandon Jennings.
Spring House where Cherokee photographer Jennie Ross Cobb washed dry-plate negatives and printing out papers.
Alicia Flores – California Coastal Native Activist, Fayetteville AR.
Tintype of Osage Orange harvested from Tuskahoma OK (Choctaw Nation). Collection of Fort Smith Regional Art Museum.
"The Wheel" exhibit at Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (RAM). February 26th - June 5th, 2022.
Up the stairs to the Martha Jones Gallery.
Native Activist Alicia Flores (L) & Damen Washington lightbox.
ANSCO Commercial view camera was used to create several images in the exhibit.
Interpretation Wall.
Tintypes of Damen Washington, Brandon Jennings, and Roland Pinault. Ambrotype in petri dish of Quatie Ross.
North wall.
Images of Hunter's Home & Osage Orange.
Baker Farm, Choctaw Nation, Stand Waite Marine Battle, and Mount Sequoyah.
1904 Seroco Camera as used by Jennie Ross Cobb.
North & West walls, including an image of 'War Paint' by muralist D*Face.
South and SE walls including image of Brandon Jennings.
Video interpretation and lightbox of Alicia Flores.
Hunters Home & Seroco camera tintypes. Image of Peggy Sims-Hancock.
Exterior signage.
Initial installation (above) was made possible by an Arkansas Arts Humanity Grant, a Stipend Grant, and support from Historical Associations, indigenous activists, and Native Elders of the Choctaw, Keetoowah, and Cherokee Nation—exhibition sponsors: Wildcat Arts Studio, and Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ulmschneider.
‘The Wheel’ – solo exhibition, Martha Jones Gallery, Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (RAM). February 26th - June 5th, 2022.
Selections of ‘the Wheel’ also exhibited at:
PhotoSpiva 2022, March 19th-May14th (Joplin MO)
‘Light Sensitive’, Art Intersection, July 16-August 27th 2022 (Gilbert AZ)
‘Our Art, Our Region, Our Time’, 1st & 2nd Annual Exhibits, July 2021 & October 2022 (Fayetteville AR).
‘Around Town’, Local Color Studio Gallery, October 7th-November 30th 2023 (Fayetteville AR)
