Too Many Capitalists, not enough Indians: Indigenous Adjustments in the Western Narrative

Meders’ work is tied to current issues faced by communities today, and touches on many interdisciplinary approaches, playing with the boundaries of social engagement practices. His work engages with, and examines, the varied visual documents depicting indigenous people that were accessed and produced through printing processes. Through engaging with these documents, Meders addresses the stereotypical ideas emerging from this work and how they have affected the culture of native people over time. Meders is an artist in residence/research fellow at the Research Center for Material Culture in February and has been looking at 16^th and 17^th century print culture in the Netherlands, and producing work in response to this historical moment.  This work will be featured in the exhibition First Americans opening in May 2020 in Museum Volkenkunde.

Image: Jacob Meders, Divided Lines, woodcut print 3x2 ft, 2013. Courtesy of the artist.