Get Up, Stand Up
Jeffrey Gibson, 2016 (Hudson, NY)
Wool army blanket, rawhide, artificial sinew, glass beads, nylon, fringe, metal jingles, druzy crystal, 85 x 28 x 12 in.
“I feel Get Up, Stand Up is a modern version of the Native American Kachina doll, which for centuries were passed on to the daughters of the village by elders. It reminds me that traditions continue and life keeps going. Jeffrey uses threads and materials that are common to Native American art and, in a way those threads connect past to present.”
–Harriet Lewis
Utilizing lyrics, in this instance from Bob Marley & the Wailers 1973 hit “Get Up, Stand Up,” Gibson incorporates words with centuries of indigenous history: beads, fringe, rawhide, crystal and tin jingles that dancers wear and shake at powwows.
As the opening statement on the Wailer’s 1973 album Burnin’, “Get Up Stand Up” would go on to endure as an international human rights anthem, speaking to the persistence of oppression and human rights violations in all forms throughout the world.
