Corn Ears of the Future 2018-03-04T03:13:28+00:00

Project Description

Corn Ears of the Future

2003

Corn Ears of the Future
Corn Ears of the Future

Rawhide, natural pigment, poplar frame, digital images
84” by 63” by 6”

Contemporary Sculptures

From The Seven Screens

Winter Count paintings were made by the Plains Indians such as the Cheyenne. These history paintings on buffalo robes used pictographs representing significant events in lieu of a written language. As these events were recorded in the dead of winter hence they were called Winter Count paintings.

The Box and Border design featured here was once painted on the backs of Cheyenne buffalo robes worn in winter. The designs are painted in all natural pigment like the originals. Ringsby has taken this tradition and reworked it combining images from Palestine as he wishes to forge a parallel between the histories of these oppressed native peoples.

The images used in Ringsby’s Winter Count paintings were either sent to him by friends in the peace movement in the Occupied Territories or from the UN. The text was found by the artist in the course of his exhaustive research preparations for “The Indian Wars-Palestine.”

Once banned, the text found here was written by the Syrian poet Qabbani in response to the 1967 war. Syria, Jordan and Egypt all lost land to Israel. Qabbani blamed the corrupt Arab leadership. Ringsby uses the poem to celebrate the Palestinian children who seem to sprout right out of the rubble of the camps and be joyful in spite of the seemingly endless violence and suffering.


Winter Count paintings were made by the Plains Indians such as the Cheyenne. These history paintings on buffalo robes used pictographs representing significant events in lieu of a written language. As these events were recorded in the dead of winter hence they were called Winter Count paintings. The Box and Border design featured here was once painted on the backs of Cheyenne buffalo robes worn in cold weather. Here they are painted in all natural pigment like the originals. Ringsby has taken this tradition and reworked it combining images from Palestine as he wishes to forge a parallel between the histories of these oppressed native peoples. The images used in Ringsby’s Winter Count paintings were either sent to him by friends in the peace movement in the Occupied Territories or from the UN. The text was found by the artist in the course of his exhaustive research preparations for “The Indian Wars-Palestine.”

Full rawhide skins have been impregnated with video and photographic images of atrocities committed in the Occupied Territories and Israel. The historical allusion is to the buffalo hide painting of the Plains Indians that artistically documented their battles. Neither people had a voice in the media; both watched helplessly as their cultures were leveled. The world was not moved by the plight of the Indian nor of the Palestinians until it was too late.

Click to read 2004 Press Release.

Click to read Artist Statement.

Back to Gallery

CHECK OUT ALL THE GALLERIES

Gallery 1
Gallery 2
Gallery 3
Gallery 4
Gallery 5
Gallery 6
Gallery 7
Gallery 8
Gallery 9
Gallery 10