Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s mixed-media canvas *Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People)* was created in 1992 as a response to the quincentenary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Which of the following best describes the primary political message conveyed by this work?
- It critiques the historical exploitation, unequal treaties, and cheap commercialized stereotyping of Native American culture.Answer
- BIt celebrates the successful assimilation and integration of indigenous motifs into American commercial branding.
- CIt documents sacred shamanistic healing ceremonies to protect ancestral lands from modern environmental damage.
- DIt mimics the religious syncretism of Spanish colonial paintings to advocate for cultural unification.
Answer
The primary political message of the work is that it critiques the historical exploitation, unequal treaties, and cheap commercialized stereotyping of Native American culture.
The correct answer is correct because Jaune Quick-to-See Smith created the work to expose the historical injustices of land deals and the modern commodification of Native American culture. By pairing a layered collage of historical reference material with cheap sports memorabilia and toys suspended above the canvas, she highlights how Native identities have been commercialized and stereotyped while historical treaties were violated.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Political activism and institutional critique in global contemporary art