Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World

“With irreverent humor, Jimmie Durham confronts the fraught history of the United States and his own complex relationship to native identity.”

“Though Durham was referred to as Cherokee or Indian in the past, those words should never be applied to him in the future.”

“He is not ‘representing’ Indigenous culture in his works, but investigating how American Indian history and culture have been misrepresented by others.” 

“Numerous non-Native people have tried to say, ‘Indigenous identity is complex,’ as if that ends the conversation. It’s complex, but not incomprehensible.”

“To focus on shaming an artist for what is . . . a truly brilliant, half-century-long act of politically driven self-invention, strikes me as self-defeating.”

“Clearly Jimmie Durham revels in blurring the line.”