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Terry
Adkins, Ulukuk, 2011.From the series
“Nutjuitok (Polar Star), After Matthew Henson 1866“. Image via db-artmag.com.
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Nutjuitok
(Polar Star)
April 4 – September 14, 2014
625 C
Street
Anchorage,
AK
Terry Adkins was on a quest to right historical wrongs. In the new solo exhibition, Nutjuitok
(Polar Star), multimedia installations examine Northern exploration and
exploitation through the story of Matthew Henson.
Henson was an African American explorer and associate of Robert Peary on
various expeditions, the most famous being the race to the North Pole.
In 1909, Peary mounted his eighth attempt to reach the geographic North Pole.
He was suffering from frostbite, and sent Henson ahead as a scout. Henson later
testified, “I could see that my footprints were the first at the spot.”
Although Peary received many honors, Henson spent the next 30 years working in
obscurity as a customs clerk.
Adkins re-examined this story by undertaking his own Northern expedition:
During a 2011 artist residency at the Anchorage Museum he traveled to the
Arctic Circle and researched Henson’s immersion in Inuit culture.
Adkins learned Henson traded with Inuit people, learned the language, built
sleds and trained dog teams. Henson also fathered a half-Inuit son, whose
descendants still live in Greenland.
In discussing the North Pole journey and the dispute around who arrived first,
Adkins’ artwork broaches a larger conversation about the legacy of exploration
and its impact on indigenous people.
Adkins was known for melding sculpture, music, video, literature and ritual to
preserve the legacies of his subjects, who in the past have included Sojourner
Truth and Ralph Ellison.
Adkins’ work is in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art
and Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. He was an art professor at the
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
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