Article
An exploration of the world
“Some collide, some escape”: This was the title of a 2005 exhibition of works by Jimmie Durham that was held in a former cow barn belonging to Berlin’s Humboldt-Universität. The barn had been a site of agricultural research in the days of socialism. “Some collide, some escape” – a good name for Durham’s art, which is made up of contradictions.
Durham opened “Some collide, some escape” with a vegetarian performance – he ate a flower – and, in the university cow barn, revealed his artistic cosmos. On display were an old toothbrush among rotten apples, medical instruments adorned with feathers, egg shells, bones, pelts and a good deal more. The exhibition constituted an exploration of the world, an exploration of the everyday. Durham’s presentations were at times called “Alltags-Ethnologien” – ethnologies of the everyday.
There are many strands in Durham’s art. He was born in Washington, Arkansas in 1940 and is of Cherokee descent. He is a poet as well as a visual and performance artist. In the 1960s he realized theater projects, and he mounted his first solo exhibition in 1965 in Austin. In 1969 he moved to Geneva, later to Mexico. Durham’s work as an artist cannot be seen separately from his engagement as a political activist and leading proponent of the Native American civil rights movement since the early 1960s. He was a co-founder of the International Indian Treaty Council and represented the organization at the United Nations. In 1998 Durham moved to Berlin, where he lived initially as a guest of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
As an artist, Durham oscillates between many poles. Text and language define his work. It often contains a wonderful poetic quality, as in the piece he created for the 1992 documenta exhibition in Kassel. He called the small, casually presented two-part stone work “This Stone is from the Mountain / This Stone is from the Red Palace.” The piece was a greatly ironic highlight of that year’s show, and a commentary on our exhibition culture, on the reverence with which we encounter exhibited works. They should not be believed, he once wrote – just as we should renounce faith in general: “Believe nothing. Belief is an evil, inhuman phenomenon. Humans evolved to question and to investigate; not to believe.”
Durham called another exhibition, held at the Kunstverein in Munich, “Between the Furniture and the Building.” Here he showed “St. Frigo,” a refrigerator that had been demolished by hurled stones – the “opposite of a sculpture,” as he put it: “It took nine or ten days. Every morning I threw stones at the refrigerator. It was as if I were just going to work. You leave home early in the morning and throw cobblestones at the fridge, until you’ve changed its shape … Instead of carving a sculpture out of the stone with tools, I wanted to use the stone itself as a tool. Not to create a new form, but to change an already existing object.” Stoning an innocent refrigerator – is it rage that is being articulated here?
Works by Durham present themselves in diverse ways. He has designed a stage set for an opera at the Staatsoper in Berlin; in his exhibitions he has displayed petrified cake, a petrified rubber ball, and an over-dimensioned locked iron door lying on the floor. Often the artist aims to evoke confusion. Another important area of his work is artist’s books that combine literary texts with photographs of his performances or with drawings. In them, Durham muses at length about language, words and writing, their origins and their functions.
It is perhaps fitting that the artist deals with the origins of words – he who all his life has restlessly moved from country to country, who once described himself as a “homeless orphan” who has no home but never stops longing for one. Durham sees himself neither as an Indian nor as an American artist. He has lived in Marseille, Brussels, many places in the United States, in Mexico and Europe, and now in Rome.
His art is hardly imaginable without this constant change of location. Durham is a gatherer, an arranger of the everyday. He brings things together, arranges – or destroys: He once demolished an exhibition display case with a stone that, according to the artist, came from Metternich’s house. But can one believe him? One thing is true in any case: In Sydney he dropped a huge boulder onto a perfectly good car.
There are many strands in Durham’s art. He was born in Washington, Arkansas in 1940 and is of Cherokee descent. He is a poet as well as a visual and performance artist. In the 1960s he realized theater projects, and he mounted his first solo exhibition in 1965 in Austin. In 1969 he moved to Geneva, later to Mexico. Durham’s work as an artist cannot be seen separately from his engagement as a political activist and leading proponent of the Native American civil rights movement since the early 1960s. He was a co-founder of the International Indian Treaty Council and represented the organization at the United Nations. In 1998 Durham moved to Berlin, where he lived initially as a guest of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
As an artist, Durham oscillates between many poles. Text and language define his work. It often contains a wonderful poetic quality, as in the piece he created for the 1992 documenta exhibition in Kassel. He called the small, casually presented two-part stone work “This Stone is from the Mountain / This Stone is from the Red Palace.” The piece was a greatly ironic highlight of that year’s show, and a commentary on our exhibition culture, on the reverence with which we encounter exhibited works. They should not be believed, he once wrote – just as we should renounce faith in general: “Believe nothing. Belief is an evil, inhuman phenomenon. Humans evolved to question and to investigate; not to believe.”
Durham called another exhibition, held at the Kunstverein in Munich, “Between the Furniture and the Building.” Here he showed “St. Frigo,” a refrigerator that had been demolished by hurled stones – the “opposite of a sculpture,” as he put it: “It took nine or ten days. Every morning I threw stones at the refrigerator. It was as if I were just going to work. You leave home early in the morning and throw cobblestones at the fridge, until you’ve changed its shape … Instead of carving a sculpture out of the stone with tools, I wanted to use the stone itself as a tool. Not to create a new form, but to change an already existing object.” Stoning an innocent refrigerator – is it rage that is being articulated here?
Works by Durham present themselves in diverse ways. He has designed a stage set for an opera at the Staatsoper in Berlin; in his exhibitions he has displayed petrified cake, a petrified rubber ball, and an over-dimensioned locked iron door lying on the floor. Often the artist aims to evoke confusion. Another important area of his work is artist’s books that combine literary texts with photographs of his performances or with drawings. In them, Durham muses at length about language, words and writing, their origins and their functions.
It is perhaps fitting that the artist deals with the origins of words – he who all his life has restlessly moved from country to country, who once described himself as a “homeless orphan” who has no home but never stops longing for one. Durham sees himself neither as an Indian nor as an American artist. He has lived in Marseille, Brussels, many places in the United States, in Mexico and Europe, and now in Rome.
His art is hardly imaginable without this constant change of location. Durham is a gatherer, an arranger of the everyday. He brings things together, arranges – or destroys: He once demolished an exhibition display case with a stone that, according to the artist, came from Metternich’s house. But can one believe him? One thing is true in any case: In Sydney he dropped a huge boulder onto a perfectly good car.
Author: Marc Peschke
Bio
Jimmie Durham was born in 1940 in Washington, Arkansas, in the USA and belongs to the Cherokee Indians. Since the mid-60s he has given performance (´My Land´, in the Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas, with Muhammed Ali and Vivian Allen in 1964) and has published poems as well as articles in the alternative press of Austin, Texas. In 1969 he moved to Geneva, where he gave many street performances in 1972 and then studied at the École des Beaux Arts at the university. In 1973 he moved to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Till 1980 he was a member of the central council of the American Indian movement, from 1975-9 also the executive director of the International Treaty Council in New York and its representative in the UNO as well as the co-publisher of Treaty Council News from 1975-80 and the author of many political articles. From 1981-3 Durham was the director of the Foundation for the Community of Artists (FCA) in New York and from 1982-5 the publisher of the magazine ´Art and Artist Newspaper´. In 1986, together with Jean Fisher he took care of the mobile exhibition ´Ni Go Tlunh a Doh ka´ / ´We are always turning around on purpose? in the State University of New York in Old Westbury, and in 1987 the exhibition ´We The People´ in the Artists Space in New York. From 1987-94 he lived and worked in Mexico, then in Tokyo, Dublin and Ghent. He spent two years in Brussels and was then in Marseilles and Stockholm. In 1997 he was given a daad award for Berlin, where he has been living and working with Maria Thereza Alves sind 1998.
Durham has published many poems and texts in books and magazines like Artforum, Art Journal, Black Scholar and Third Text. Four poems appeared in Harper´s Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry (New York / San Francisco: Diane Niatum / Harper & Row, 1988. He has illustrated many catalogues for exhibitions like ´10 Voyages conceptual´ and ´Resurrection´ (both at the Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp, 1995 and 1996) and published art books: ´Do it´ (1994 and 1996); ´Der Verführer und der Steinerne Gast´ (1996); ´Unbuilt Roads´ (1997); ´Between the Furniture and the Building (Between a Rock und a Hard Place)´ (1998); ´Facts & Fiction: Arte e narrazione´ (1998); ´Stoneheart´ (2001). He has also brought anthologies out like ´The East London Coelacanth´ (London: ICA / Bookworks, 1992) and ´A certain lack of coherence. Writings on art and cultural politics" (London: Kala Press, 1994).
Durham has published many poems and texts in books and magazines like Artforum, Art Journal, Black Scholar and Third Text. Four poems appeared in Harper´s Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry (New York / San Francisco: Diane Niatum / Harper & Row, 1988. He has illustrated many catalogues for exhibitions like ´10 Voyages conceptual´ and ´Resurrection´ (both at the Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp, 1995 and 1996) and published art books: ´Do it´ (1994 and 1996); ´Der Verführer und der Steinerne Gast´ (1996); ´Unbuilt Roads´ (1997); ´Between the Furniture and the Building (Between a Rock und a Hard Place)´ (1998); ´Facts & Fiction: Arte e narrazione´ (1998); ´Stoneheart´ (2001). He has also brought anthologies out like ´The East London Coelacanth´ (London: ICA / Bookworks, 1992) and ´A certain lack of coherence. Writings on art and cultural politics" (London: Kala Press, 1994).
Works
Durham, Jimmie. Rejected Stones… / Pierres rejetées…
Published Written,
2009
Catalogue (FR./EN). Edited by Musée d´art moderne de la Ville de Paris. Texts by Pascal Beausse, Sandra Cattini, Anselm Franke, Anri Sala and others
The Second Particle Wave Theory
Published Written,
2006
Edited by Robert Blackson &
Candice Hopkins (EN). Sunderland
The American West
Published Written,
2005
Catalogue (EN). Curators: Jimmie Durham and Richard Hill. Texts by Jimmie Durham, Jean Fisher, Bonnie Fultz, Jen Budney, Simon Ortiz, Richard William Hill. Comton Verney
Jimmie Durham
Published Written,
2004
Catalogue (EN/IT). Texts by Jimmie Durham, Anna Daneri, Roberto Pinto and others. Milano
Stone Heart
Published Written,
2001
Kitakyushu
Fact and Fiction: Arte e narrazione
Published Written,
1998
Between the Furniture and the Building (Between a Rock and a Hard Place)
Published Written,
1998
Unbuilt Roads
Published Written,
1997
Der Verführer und der Steinerne Gast
Published Written,
1996
Jimmie Durham
Published Written,
1995
by Laura Mulvey/Dirk Snauwaert/Mark Alice Durant, London: Phaidon Press 1995
A certain lack of coherence. Writings on art and cultural politics
Published Written,
1994
London: Kala Press, 1994
The East London Coelacanth
Published Written,
1992
London: ICA / Bookworks, 1992
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (Choice)
Exhibition / Installation
2004
Lies Lust Art & Fashion, Podewil, Berlin
2001
Triennale, Yokohama
More Works about Buildings and Food, Hangar 7, Oeiras/Lisbon
Biennale, Venice
4Free, BüroFriedrich, Berlin
Bosch, Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam
Ars 01, Kiasma, Helsinki
2000
Over the Edges, S.M.A.K., Ghent
Initiare, Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon
Indoor, S.M.A.K., Ghent
Heimat Kunst, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Around 1984, PS 1, New York
Alte Synagoge, Saloniki
Les figures de la marche, Musée Picasso, Antibes
Waterfront, Kathedrale, Helsingborg/Sweden
Five Continents and One City, Museo de la Ciudad, Mexico City
1999
Indoor, Musée d´Art Contemporain, Lyons
Biennale, Venice
Originale echt falsch, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
With Nothing Up Our Sleeves, Centre for Contemporary Art, Sittard/Netherlands
Echigo-Tsumari Biennale, Matsunoyama/Japan
L´ultimo disegno del 1999, Zerynthia, Rome
1998
Ucelli/Birds, The Bird Park, Paliano/Italy
Non-Painters Painting, Galerie Berlin Tokyo, Berlin
Indoor, The Old School House, Serre di Rapolano/Italy
Crossings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Self-Portraits, Academy of Art, Malmö
1997
Around Us, Inside Us, Museum for Contemporary Art, Boras/Sweden
Hora Est, Stedelijk Het Domain Museum, Sittard/Netherlands
Summerproject, Stefan Andersson Gallery, Umea/Sweden
Citta natura, Palazzo delle Esposizioni u.a., Rome
Galleria Via Farini, Milan
Biennale, Istanbul
Jingle Bells, Galleria Maximo di Carlo, Milan
1996
Meridian Crossing, Monastery Plasy, Plasy/Chechen
Flags, Culturgest, Lisbon
1995
Maisons Cerveaux, La Ferme du Buisson, Noisel/France
Strangers in the Artic, Rundetarn, Copenhagen
1994
"don´t look now", Thread Waxing Space, New York
Fire! Or Imperialism! (Performance): Outside the Frame. Performance Art and The Object, Cleveland/Ohio
Beelden Buitin 94, Centrum Gildhof, Tielt/Belgium
Economies, Galerie Roger Pailhas, Marseilles
Cocido y crudo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Faret Tachikawa Project, Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
Transformers. The Art of Multiphrenia, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Anandale; Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University; University of Michigan Museum of Art
1993
Rendez(-)vous, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
On taking a normal situation..., Museum of Contemporary Art (MUHKA), Antwerp
States of Loss - Migration, Displacement, Colonialism and Power, Jersey City Museum, New Jersey
1992
America - Bride of the Sun, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Documenta IX, Kassel
Dissent, Difference and the Body Politic, Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Otis Parsons School of Art and Design, Los Angeles
Will/Power, Wexner Center for Visual Arts, Columbus/Ohio
Land, Spirit, Power, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Regarding America (Ante América), Banco de la República, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Santafé de Bogotá; Queens Museum of Art, New York
For the Seventh Generation. Native American Artists Counter the Quincentenary, Golden Artists Colors Gallery, Columbus/New York
Mistaken Identities, University Art Museum of California, Santa Barbara/California etc.
(Installation und Performance with Maria Thereza Alves and Alan Michelson): Edge 92 Festival, Madrid and London
(Installation and Performance with Maria Thereza Alves): Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey/Nuevo León
1991
Souvenir of Site Seeing. Travel and Tourism in Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum of American Art - Downtown, New York
Savage (Performance): Time Festival, Museum van Hedendaags Kunst, Ghent
The Subversive Stitch, Simon Watson, New York
Spiritual Cargo. Shamanistic Manifestations, Atrium Gallery, Connecticut
The Interrupted Life, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
1990
Crazy for Life (Performance): Dance Theater Workshop, New York
The Self-Taught Artist (Performance): Exit Art, New York
Catskills Give-away (Performance): Art Awareness Lexington, New York
Savoir Faire, Savoir Vivre, Savoir Etre, Centre International d´Art Contemporain de Montréal, Québec
Savagism and You (Performance): Whitney Museum Downtown, New York
Holy Wars, Exit Art, New York
(Performance): Orchard Gallery, Derry
1989
Hermeneutical Considerations of the Bishop´s Moose (Performance): Exit Art, New York
1998
Re-Visions, Walter Philips Gallery, Banff/Alberta
Acts of Faith, Cleveland State University, Southeast Massachusetts University, North Dartmouth
Four Scenes for the British Army (Performance): Orchard Gallery, Derry
1987
I want to Say Something (Performance): La Mamma Theater, New York
Rider with No Horse, American Indian Gallery
The Law and Order Show, John Weber Gallery, Leo Castelli Gallery, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Paula Cooper Gallery, all in New York
The Soaring Spirit, Morris Museum, Morristown/New Jersey
1986
Start Again, Ground Zero, New York
New Art, New York, Harlem School of the Arts, New York
Por encima el bloqueo, Museo del Chopo, Mexico City; Centro Wifredo Lam, Havana
Mixed Media, Mixed Mores, U.S. Courthouse, New York
1985
Forecast. Images of the Future, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
New York Indians´ Perspectives, American Indian Community House Gallery, New York
Traditions and Modern Configurations, AAA Art New York, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem
Manhattan Give-away (Performance): Franklin Furnace, New York
Personal History Public Address, Minor Injury Gallery, Brooklyn/New York
Dimensions in Dissent, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
1984
Call and Response. Art on Central America, Colby College, Waterville/Maine
Racist America (Performance: A Trick), Dramatis Personae Gallery, New York
Art Against Apartheid, Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York
1983
Invitational. 14 Sculptors Gallery, New York
Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, Judson Memorial Church, New York
Thanksgiving (Performance): PS 122, New York
1982
Beyond Aesthetics, Henry Street Settlement, New York
Ritual and Rhythm, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
Manhattan Festival of the Dead (Performance): No Thanks Festival, New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition / Installation
2008
Jimmie Durham, Museo D´Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina - MADRE, Naples, Italy
2007
Bestiary, Lumen Travo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jimmie Durham, de Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich, Switzerland
Labyrinth, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris, France
Templum: il sacro, il profano, e altro, Volume!, Rome, Italy
Form and Substance, Batagianni Gallery, Athens, Greece
knew urk - Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC, Canada
2006
Building a Nation, Matt´s Gallery, London, UK
JIMMIE DURHAM - Glass, Christine König Galerie, Vienna, Austria
Jimmie Durham - Elements and Materials from my atelier in Berlin´s Grunewald Forest, Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, Germany
2005
Jimmie Durham: Knew Urk, The Banff Centre - Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, AB, Canada
Jimmie Durham, Knew Urk, Reg Vardy Gallery, Sunderland, UK
2004
Le ragioni della leggerezza, Galleria Francosoffiantino Artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
2003
Jimmie Durham, Batagianni Gallery, Athens, Greece
Jimmie Durham – Semi-Specific Objects and Almost-Related Words, Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren, Germany
Jimmie Durham – From the West Pacific to the East Atlantic, GeM - Museum voor Actuele Kunst, The Hague, The Netherlands
2001
Solverberget Gallery, Stavanger/Norway
2000
Centre for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu/Japan
Barbara Vienna. Bookshop - Publishing House - Gallery, Berlin
Stones at Home, Christine König Gallery, Vienna
Denkzeichen 4. November 1989, Alexanderplatz, Berlin
Nordenhake Gallery, Stockholm
1999
Galerie Carrousel, Paris
Museu do Chiado, Lisbon
Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund
1998
Self-Portraits, Tanya Rumpff Gallery, Haarlem
École Regionale des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
Semi-Precious, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam
Drawings, daad-galerie, Berlin
1997
1000 Objects for the 1000 Years Anniversary of Trondheim, Academy of Art, Trondheim
Works, Nordenhake Gallery, Stockholm
The Center of the World at Chalma, Pori Museum for Contemporary Art, Pori
Micheline Szwajcer Gallery, Antwerp
1996
La porte de l´Europe, Galerie de la Ancienne Poste, Calais (catalogue)
Le leçon de l´anatomie, Galerie le College, Rheims (catalogue)
The Libertine and the Stone Guest, Wittgenstein Haus, Vienna (catalogue)
Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund
M.A.J.T., Lille (Videos)
1995
Ropa vieja Spring Collection, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York
Modulo Centro Difusor de Arte, Lisbon
A Staff for the Center of the World in Siberia, Yakutsk
The Center of the World, De Vleeshal, Middelburg/Netherlands (catalogue)
1994
Architexture, Micheline Szwajcer Gallery, Antwerp
1993
Centre d´Art du Domaine Kerguéhennec, Bignan-Locminé/France (with Ricardo Brey and Michelangelo Pistoletto)
Kunsthalle, Fribourg (with David Hammons and Pedro Cabrita Reis)
Various Gates and Escape Routes, L. A. Louver, Venice/California
A certain Lack of Coherence, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Original Re-runs, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; Kunstverein, Hamburg (catalogue)
1992
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York
1991
John Rollin Ridge, Zorro and the Joad Family Players, The Luggage Store, San Francisco
C. N. Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis/California (with Brian Tripp)
1989
The Bishop´s Moose and the Pinkerton Man, Exit Art, New York; Western Washington University, Bellingham; Museum of Civilisation, Hull/Quebec (catalogue)
1988
Pocahontas and the Little Carpenter in London, Matt´s Gallery, London (catalogue)
Orchard Gallery, Derry (catalogue)
1986
John Jay College, New York
1985
Bedia´s First Basement, 22 Wooster Gallery, New York
A Matter of Life and Death and Singing, Alternative Museum, New York (catalogue)
1972
Circa Gallery, Geneva
École des Beaux-Arts, Geneva
1971
Centre des Rencontres, Geneva
Circa Gallery, Geneva
1967
University of Texas, Austin
Adept Gallery, Houston
Projects
This artist took part in the following project(s) organized/funded by the culturebase.net partner institutions.
