{"id":20534,"date":"2021-09-24T20:34:25","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T00:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=20534"},"modified":"2021-09-25T06:39:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T10:39:41","slug":"elizabeth-james-perry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2021\/09\/24\/elizabeth-james-perry\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aquinnah Wampanoag Artist Elizabeth James-Perry\u2019s Idea \u2018To Garden Wherever We Need To\u2019 Came To The MFA\u2019s Front Lawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Boston\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts reached out to Aquinnah Wampanoag artist Elizabeth James-Perry to develop a project. She is a biological illustrator and gardener, as well as an artist known for creating wampum belts, weaving sashes and bags from locally-harvested, hand-spun milkweed stalks with natural dyes, and fashioning pendants, collars and other jewelry from quahog shells.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s invitation reminded her of an idea she\u2019d had for garden of corn in Boston, an idea that come to her in reaction to a lawsuit fighting the tribe\u2019s effort to hold land in trust<\/a> and the Trump Administration\u2019s attempt to disestablish the tribe\u2019s reservation in Masphee and Taunton.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my horror, Rhode Island and 21 other states jumped on the suit all questioning the right of tribes to take land into trust,\u201d she says. Land\u2014homeland\u2014is intrinsic to tribes\u2019 abilities to exist, she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a very hospitable time for tribes.\u201d<\/p>\n

James-Perry, who lives in southeastern Massachusetts, imagined gathering tribal women together to plant corn on Boston Common\u2014\u201cto garden wherever we need to.\u201d She says, \u201cI didn\u2019t do anything with it, but I always kept that image because it gave me hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Planting<\/a>
Planting Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, May 17, 2021. (Photo \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In May, at the museum\u2019s invitation, she and collaborators planted a garden of corn, beans and sedges around Cyrus Dallin\u2019s 1909 statue \u201cAppeal to the Great Spirit,\u201d the White artist\u2019s depiction of a Native American on horseback with his arms spread wide, which has stood on the Museum of Fine Arts\u2019 front lawn since 1912.<\/p>\n

The project was part of \u201cGarden for Boston\u201d<\/a> for which Roxbury artist Ekua Holmes also planted nearly 3,000 sunflowers on the eastern side of the museum\u2019s front lawn for her \u201cRadiant Community\u201d project, which expanded her 4-year-old community planting program \u201cThe Roxbury Sunflower Project.\u201d<\/p>\n

James-Perry, Holmes\u2019s collaborator Lolita Parker Jr., and MFA Director Matthew Teitelbaum will speak during the \u201c\u2018Garden for Boston\u2019 Harvest Celebration\u201d<\/a> at the museum\u2019s Huntington Avenue entrance on Saturday, Sept. 25, from 3 to 4 p.m., to celebrate the closing of \u201cGarden for Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

James-Perry initially sketched out her proposal, finding herself portraying the man atop the horse more as an Indigenous person from around here. \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston,\u201d as the project became called, \u201cis a nod to the eastern Native story about the traditional knowledge keeper, Raven, who brought corn to the region for Native women to grow and sustain their families. The garden is meant to welcome, intrigue and provoke discussion. Situated around the Dallin statue, it will be a lively and authentically Native counterpoint to the controversial figure,\u201d James-Perry said in a museum announcement. \u201cThe horseshoe crab shape, along with the white crushed oyster shell border, connects the planting to my coastal identity. It recalls rich sea harvests and coastal feasts, and is a reminder of the shell middens once ubiquitous in what is now a concrete cityscape. The garden is a reclamation of Boston as Indigenous land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth<\/a>
Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, July 21, 2021. (Photo \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James-Perry wanted to create something green, growing, alive, in motion, in contrast to the \u201cstill static patriarchal image in bronze.\u201d She says, \u201cI didn\u2019t want the garden to center the statue so much as soften it, obscure it, and change the vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the tensions is the Dallin sculpture isn\u2019t Native-made or a Native artist, but is very prominent. It sits out there as a not very relevant representation of Native Americans,\u201d James-Perry says. She describes it as \u201cersatz. It\u2019s plastic culture.\u201d She says, \u201cI don\u2019t know what that fascination is. It doesn\u2019t make sense. It\u2019s not accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d is \u201ca little bit of a metaphor for Boston. As a Native person going around Boston there\u2019s a lot of concrete and a lot of stone, but there isn\u2019t a consistent way of having earth shown,\u201d she says. Boston has become a cityscape, not well reflecting the beauty of its coastal location<\/p>\n

\u201cI do a lot of gardening here and I encourage everybody I can to plant,\u201d James-Perry says. \u201cIf you\u2019re working to preserve traditional arts and culture that are place specific and resource specific \u2026 to be able to do Wampanoag art you need to be near the land that grows the milkweed.\u201d They maintain culture, cuisine and art by mindfully protecting spaces. \u201cThere are ways of doing things where you actually preserve the character of New England.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously:<\/strong>
\nMay 15, 2021: Artists To Turn MFA Lawn Into A Garden<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, nature, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2021 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Planting<\/a>
Planting Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, May 17, 2021. (Photo \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Planting<\/a>
Planting Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, May 17, 2021. (Photo \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elizabeth<\/a>
Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, June 22, 2021. (Photo \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elizabeth<\/a>
Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, July 21, 2021. (Photo \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elizabeth<\/a>
Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, July 21, 2021. (Photo \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elizabeth<\/a>
Elizabeth James-Perry’s \u201cRaven Reshapes Boston\u201d garden at the Huntington Avenue lawn on Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Sept. 10, 2021. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, Boston\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts reached out to Aquinnah Wampanoag artist Elizabeth James-Perry to develop a project. She is a biological illustrator and gardener, as well as an artist known for creating wampum belts, weaving sashes and bags from locally-harvested, hand-spun milkweed stalks with natural dyes, and fashioning pendants, collars and other jewelry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20534"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20553,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20534\/revisions\/20553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}