Images(5)

The Mom Call

Date2011

Maker Brian Jungen Canadian First Nations (Dane-zaa), born 1970

Label TextJungen’s drum combines a commercial version of “organic” modern design—which refers to the chair’s form, rather than its material—with a handmade object that is constructed with organic materials. Created with the help and communal knowledge of his extended family from his mother’s Dane-zaa Nation in British Columbia, the work is in part a search for identities, both personal and artistic. From New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s call for entries to a design competition in 1940, Jungen extrapolates The Mom Call—referencing his mother’s aboriginal heritage and hunting traditions while alluding to MoMA as the “mother of modern art.”

Object number2014.34

Provenance[Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York]; purchased by the Seattle Art Museum (funds from Contemporary Collectors Forum), December 16, 2014

Photo CreditPhoto: Casey Kaplan Gallery

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Casey Kaplan Gallery, Brian Jungen, September 8 – October 22, 2011; Vancouver, British Columbia, Science World, New Forms Festival, September 18 – 21, 2014

Credit LineGift of the Contemporary Collectors Forum

Dimensions80 1/4 x 33 x 29 1/2 in. (203.8 x 83.8 x 74.9 cm)

MediumOrganic Chair by Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames, American elk hide, tarred twine, steel, granite