Artwork copyright Jolene Rickard. Photo courtesy of the artist, 1986.

Iroquois People, 1984

Jolene Rickard
(American | Tuscarora, born 1956)

Location: Washington State University, Pullman

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Iroquois People is a photograph by Tuscaroran artist Jolene Rickard. She notes, "like any artform, photography is my looking glass to examine ideas of Native people and also act as a conduit of collective thought."

This artwork is part of Beyond Blue Mountains, a collection that was curated by late Tlingit (Native Alaskan) artist Jim Schoppert. It presents the work of Native American artists of diverse heritage, ideas, materials, and styles. The collection takes an in-depth look at the artists’ unique voices and interpretations of tradition.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Department of Corrections.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora) is an artist, curator, professor, and visual historian whose focus is art history and Indigenous studies. She is of Native American Tuscaroran heritage (Western New York State).

Rickard earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York, a Master of Fine Arts degree from Buffalo State College, New York, and a PhD from the University at Buffalo (SUNY). She is an associate professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The 2004 inaugural exhibition for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. was co-curated by Rickard.