Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith

I See Red: Talking to the Ancestors

I See Red: Talking to the Ancestors is part of a larger series of works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith addressing the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. An enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the artist portrays an intergenerational dialogue marred by noise and dissonance. Lurking in the background, the work features a collaged array of photographs, newspaper clippings, court documents, and botanical drawings. Words and images culled from the mass media echo each other in a discordant depiction of exploitation, educational disparity, reservation life, and the spread of disease. The work depicts the relationship between the two figures in the foreground as close but paradoxically distant and muted. The phrase “I See Red” recalls the common expression denoting a blinding rage.