Image series 43 / 2026: Wendy Red Star
Gentle Activism
18 October 2026
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By: Bettina Pfleging
Through photographs, collages, sculptures and installations, the American artist and member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation Wendy Red Star explores the history and present-day realities of Indigenous peoples. In her self-staged photographic works, she engages with Western notions of Indigenous life in a humorous and satirical manner; she also reworks historical portraits from the National Anthropological Archives by adding her own handwritten annotations in red ink. In doing so, she creates new perspectives on the representation and description of Indigenous peoples’ lives.
Images from the Detroit Publishing Company, which depict supposedly unspoilt nature in the USA, are juxtaposed in the exhibition with works by Wendy Red Star and Marie Watt, two contemporary Indigenous artists, in an attempt to sharpen our focus on the construction of narratives and what they exclude.
„HERE AND NOW at Museum Ludwig. De/Collecting Memories from Turtle Island“
7 February until 7 November 2026, Museum Ludwig, Köln
Wendy Red Star. Indian Summer, Ausschnitt, 2006, Pigment print, 53,3 × 61 cm; Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Library, Cambridge
Wendy Red Star. Winter, Ausschnitt, 2006, Pigment print, 53,3 × 61 cm; Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Library, Cambridge
Wendy Red Star. Peelatchiwaaxpáash / Medicine Crow (Raven), Ausschnitt, 2014, 24 × 16.45 inches; Upload-Datenbank, prometheus – Das verteilte digitale Bildarchiv für Forschung & Lehre, Köln
Wendy Red Star. Apsáalooke Feminist #1, Ausschnitt, 2016, Archival pigment print, 35 × 42 inches; Upload-Datenbank, prometheus – Das verteilte digitale Bildarchiv für Forschung & Lehre, Köln
Wendy Red Star. Apsáalooke Feminist #3, Ausschnitt, 2016, Pigment print, 86,4 × 104,1 cm; Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Library, Cambridge
Wendy Red Star. Catalogue Number 1938.52, from the series Accession, Ausschnitt, 2019, pigment print on paper, 71,1 × 45,7 cm; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Wendy Red Star. The Indian Congress, Ausschnitt, 2021, Omaha; Upload-Datenbank, prometheus – Das verteilte digitale Bildarchiv für Forschung & Lehre, Köln
Wendy Red Star. The Soil You See …, Ausschnitt, 2023, Kilnformed glass, granite, metal, Montana; Upload-Datenbank, prometheus – Das verteilte digitale Bildarchiv für Forschung & Lehre, Köln
