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Photo: Scott Leen
Architecture of return, escape (The British Museum)
Photo: Scott Leen

Architecture of return, escape (The British Museum)

Date2022
Label TextGalanin’s work engages themes of persistence, power, and survival in the face of settler colonialism and its legacies of institutional racism and collective amnesia. Here, the floor plan of the British Museum is painted over a blue field. Pictograms of baskets, masks, woven hats, weapons, tools, and textiles reference the contested objects held in the museum’s collection, while a red line maps an escape route for these examples of Indigenous cultural production. In many Native cultures, hide paintings relay histories across generations and objects embody lineages; in referencing both, Galanin is proposing a getaway plan for his ancestors.
Object number2022.33
ProvenanceThe artist; [Peter Blum Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2022
Photo CreditPhoto: Scott Leen
Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Peter Blum Gallery, It Flows Through, May 7 - July 22, 2022. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing.
Credit LineGeneral Acquisition Fund
Dimensions36 x 55 in. (91.4 x 139.7 cm)
MediumPigment and acrylic on deer hide