Tristan McTague

An Indian's Cupboard of Curiosities

Some of the earliest records of Indigenous visual culture being present in Europe comes from the Baroque period; in particular the genre of collection paintings or the "The Cabinet of Curiosities". These paintings would often include objects belonging to various ethnographic regions across the world typically obtained through colonial and economic exploitation. this work presents my personal collection of traditional objects and materials with the exception of a toy Tomahawk. meant to symbolize peoples superficial understanding of Indigenous culture; for an unaware outsider, they might presume every object relates back to traditional Indigenous identity.