Power Full Because We're Different

Jeffrey Gibson’s POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT is a newly commissioned immersive installation filling MASS MoCA’s signature Building 5 gallery that follows Gibson’s highly celebrated United States representation at the 60th edition of La Biennale di Venezia. Gibson is known for creating installations, performances, paintings, and sculpture that elevate and provide visibility to queer and Indigenous communities, whose cultural narratives have been historically marginalized. Throughout the run of the exhibition, the project will host a series of performances by Indigenous creatives from across North America. Gibson views the exhibition as an invitation to other Indigenous creatives to contribute to a space where difference is not only considered, it is celebrated. The installation features seven aspirational and newly constructed oversized garments, which are adorned with beads and found materials, that have been organized in kaleidoscopic patterns and are suspended from the ceiling on tipi poles or worn during performances. These works are informed by various faith-based regalia and club culture — paying homage to the past while signaling hope for the future. POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT also offers an exploration into the term “two-spirit”, a third gender which is both, and neither, male or female and is often embraced by many Indigenous individuals and communities to encompass gender and spiritual identity. The exhibition will include the 1992 documentary Two Spirit People by Michel Beauchemin, Lori Levy, and Gretchen Vogel, which features Indigenous two-spirit individuals discussing the term and their identities as creatives on the streets of the Bay Area. A new video installation, suspended from the ceiling, will accompany the documentary harnessing both contemporary and early drag culture that facilitates in creating a club-like atmosphere in the first half of the gallery. Titled Your Spirit Whispers in My Ear (2024), the collection of videos are edited by Sancia Miala Shiba Nash with a soundtrack by Patrick “Reachout” Coll and the material for the videos is crowd-sourced from more than 20 Indigenous two-spirit individuals, DJs, drag performers, academics, and activists. A mirrored, multi-colored wall bisects the gallery space, end-to-end and floor-to-ceiling reflecting the videos and other works in the galleries creating a kaleidoscopic vision for visitors. Seven,12×12-foot fused glass performance stages with graphic geometric designs further amplify the experience. Each of the oversized garments will be suspended from the ceiling above its corresponding dance floor, and all seven will be distributed on both sides of the wall. These stages will be the site of many of the performances that will unfold throughout the 18-month exhibition. The exhibition is book-ended in two mezzanine galleries. The lower space contains a new two-channel video depicting Gibson wearing all seven garments in the exhibition, almost unaware of the camera, yet still conscious of being seen. This new video is inspired by legendary performer Leigh Bowery, a longtime influence for Gibson’s work. In particular, Gibson is channeling Bowery’s 1988 performance at the Anthony D’Offay Gallery in London, in which Bowery took up residence in the gallery’s street facing window behind a one way mirror. Each day Bowery tried on different costumes while preening and posing. Though the audience could see him, Bowery could only see himself raising the question of revealing and concealing one’s presence. The upper space will contain a resource space curated with Gibson and Antonia Oliver at the artist’s studio presented in three iterations over the 18-month exhibition; this space will open with a focus on videos, costumes, and texts by Two-Spirit contributors to Gibson’s exhibition.