Divers Memories

The Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford

1994

Divers memories was a project which blurred the distinction between the anthropological collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and the creativity of a group of artists, including photographers, painters, sculptors, musicians, writers and performers.

Jane Brettle's installation responded to a framed, embroidered skin blanket belonging to a Navahoe Indian as the focus for this work. This large piece hung on a column supporting the upper gallery. By appropriating a fragment of an image by the revered American photographer Ansel Adams taken in Yosemite National Park, dying the resulting image red and placing the ubiquitous musem text 'new displays are being prepared for this case' across the image and installing the framed image opposite the original, the artist questions both the historical appropriation of land from the American Indian, and the Museum as a site of classification and taste.

Medium: C Type photographic print from dyed silverprint:

Dimensions of original work: 180cms x 180cms