Jeffrey Gibson

Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City
On view through March 2021

Jeffrey Gibson’s commission for the ‘MONUMENTS NOW‘ exhibition, Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House, serves as an homage to ingenuity of Indigenous North American peoples and cultures, to pre-Columbian Mississippian architecture, and to queer camp aesthetics. Gibson has designed the multi-tiered structure to reference the earthen architecture of the ancient metropolis of Cahokia, the largest city of the North American Indigenous Mississippian people at its height in the thirteenth century. The earth mound of the pre-Columbian ziggurat in Gibson’s multi-tiered monument is represented with a plywood structure adorned with a vibrant surface of wheat-pasted posters integrating geometric designs inspired by the Serpent Mound located in Ohio, another monument of the Mississippi Valley, alongside texts that operate as activist slogans. Gibson curated Indigenous led performances to activate the structure over the course of the installation.

Artist-Driven Programming

Jeffrey Gibson has curated a series of events for ‘Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House,’ including three performances by Indigenous artists that will take place on and around the artwork’s ziggurat structure.

Online Celebration for Jeffrey Gibson’s Monument Unveiling
Wednesday, July 22
6:30pm EST – Land Acknowledgement with the Indigenous Kinship Collective
7pm EST – Laura Ortman Performs

Raven Chacon Performance Live-Stream
Wednesday, August 5
6pm EST

Emily Johnson Performance Live-Stream
September 2020