Jeffrey Gibson, PEOPLE LIKE US

Jeffrey Gibson: The very beginning of the garments is really my working with materials from the powwow circuit and from vendors selling to dancers and makers within the powwow context. Powwow is someplace where as much as there is a kind of collective sense of community there is also the individual that shines. That inspired me to look for other representations of modernity within Indigenous cultures.

[In] the Ghost Dance movement, the members would wear these shirts, which were self-made. It was a pacifist movement. It was based in a kind of ceremonial cleansing, dancing, drumming, as a way to bring strength back to the community and also to resist colonialism. 

It really impressed me that people would believe that this garment could protect them. And the subject isn't really about whether that's true or not. The subject for me is about—could I potentially have that belief? What is it about our contemporary society that doesn't allow me to believe that the making of an object can bring protection?