
2015
Wendy Red Star calls this a “futuristic powwow outfit.” It consists of an elegant woman’s evening gown and a feather hat inspired by the Apsaalooke (Crow) men’s regalia that includes angora sheepskin anklets with bells. The photograph that hangs behind it shows Red Star herself wearing this outfit somewhere in outer space, holding a mysterious stick with a dangling feather. Through her witty, ingenious art and subtle commentary, Red Star points up popular misconceptions and stereotypes of Native people as mystical and otherworldly. “I relate this to the first contact of Europeans to the ‘New World’ and how strange they felt the Native communities were, ” she says.