Atrocities in the Court of Red Dresses – on view in Pitkin Education Building

Atrocities in the Court of Red Dresses

In collaboration with the Ramapo-Munsee Lenape Nation and the BCC Student Government Association, Gallery Bergen has invited curator Oleana Whispering Dove to install an exhibition of digital works on the second floor of Pitkin Education Building near the Silverstein Library. This show is on view until December 5.  Photographic images of the Ramapo-Munsee Lenape and Mexica Women captured by Jeremy Dennis of the Indigenous Shinnecock Nation in Southampton Long Island, New York.

Curatorial Statement:

An unseen peril ravages the lives of Indigenous women as their lifeless bodies appear along roadsides. Miles of unmarked white crosses line Native reservations, and so we hang a red dress to give them honor, to bring awareness to their loss, to remember, and to stop the carnage.

Initially conceptualized in Canada as a way to bring awareness to the decade-long crisis on Native American reservations, this curated photographic display on canvas of Ramapo-Munsee Lenape and Mexica women in multifarious red dresses is presented to create a safe space for reflection, reverence, remembrance, and cultural exchange. The artful images create a pictorial that focuses on the pressing subject of Murdered, Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIW&G) on Native American reservations as an extension of inclusive outreach and ongoing social justice through art that inspires and urges us to a pledge of action.

“Through art we can connect. Through art we can relate. Through art we can see ourselves as others see us. Through art we can tackle subject matter often too painful for words”.

Oleana Whispering Dove, Keeper of Cultural Lifeways