Hadley Jensen (BGC MA ‘15, PhD ‘19) will give a Work-in-Progress presentation on Wednesday, September 11, at 12:15 pm. Her talk is entitled, “‘Showing Making’: The Material Culture of Indigenous Weaving in the American Southwest.”

In this talk, Jensen introduces her Focus Project exhibition at Bard Graduate Center, which will be the first to showcase the AMNH’s collection of indigenous textiles from the greater American Southwest. Navajo weaving will be the primary focus of the exhibition, but will be contextualized by examples of Hopi, Zuni, Chimayo, and Saltillo weavings to show regional variation in—and transmission of—motifs, materials, processes, and technologies. By exploring the various modes and contexts of intercultural influence, adaptation, and exchange in the region, this exhibit examines the trans-historical conditions for change in this particular media, and how it is intertwined with materials, objects, and social practices that articulate both cultural and regional identities. It also diverges from previous analytic strategies by focusing on indigenous aesthetics and ways of knowing. As a result, Jensen will emphasize weaving as a cultural practice, a mode of spiritual engagement, and a system of indigenous knowledge production and transmission, in addition to its significance as an “art” form with a particular economic and institutional history of non-Native collection, display, and publication.

Hadley Jensen is the Bard Graduate Center / American Museum of Natural History Postdoctoral Fellow in Museum Anthropology. Her research addresses the intersections between art, anthropology, and material culture.