Lessons from art
What's wrong with labeling a portrayal of an African Ubangi leader a "witch doctor of the Ubangi savages," as he gestures at a person prostrate on the ground below him? Or what about the label, "Old Squaw snake medical discovery" next to the image of a young American Indian woman, as she puts a snake to her mouth while others wrap around her arms? Do these words and what they suggest even see the light of day anymore? Both of these individuals are portrayed in Kresge Art Museum's "Circus: The Art of the 'Strange and the Curious'" exhibit currently on campus until July 27. Included are 12 wall-sized, painted canvas banners from old circus sideshows that sought to lure paying customers inside to gape at the "strange and curious." And there it all begins - the step back into the 20th century via these banners that date from the early 1900s up until the 1970s.
