“Transfusion”

Debra Yepa-Pappan, Ceci n’est pas une Indienne (This is not an Indian), 2008.

Evanston’s Mitchell Museum of the American Indian touts itself as the only museum of its kind in Chicagoland. But you’ve seen exhibits like its permanent displays before: They isolate Native objects of the past—empty headdresses, teepee dioramas—under glass, diminishing their cultural, spiritual and material significance.

In “Transfusion,” however, four young artists’ work reflects both their inner lives and their urban surroundings, both popular Western culture and traditional Native culture. Through collage, Pop-Art-style repetition and ironic critiques, they challenge the racial, cultural categories imposed on them by mainstream history and media. The identities they present defy neat categorization.

Debra Yepa-Pappan’s C.I.B. cites one of the ways Native people are defined in the U.S.: She plasters her own Certificate of Indian Blood over multiple, brightly colored images of a young girl’s face, questioning the ability of a piece of paper to explain who a person really is. John Joe’s woven-paper drawings and intricate wood reliefs stand out for their technical skill, as do Chris Pappan’s 21st-Century Ledger Drawings, which lampoon Euro-American painters’ iconic 19th-century Indian portraits. We should see work by contemporary Native artists in galleries throughout the city; the Mitchell has taken a vital step toward that ideal.