Connexions and condensation in the work of Jimmie Durham

The internationally renowned artist Jimmie Durham, who now lives in Europe,elaborated throughout his career a work of contemporary art which is profoundly rootedin his Cherokee culture, while efficiently engaging the art world which gives him anincreasingly important place (one of the rare such Amerindian artists). His artworkappears to combine: 1. Contemporary art devises and issues as well as western conceptsand viewpoint which he uses and assesses within pieces which are made for a (western)art public, 2. his Cherokee perspective on objects and the world (and 3. his ownpoetics). The condensation of these two perspectives within art pieces is paradoxical, forthey conceive and perceive things and relationships in the world in a priori incompatibleways. Paralleling his work, his own identity or persona is paradoxical, in that on the onehand he defines himself and is considered as an ‘international’ artist, therefore denyingthe ethnic label which has been applied to him in his early career and which he had tofight, and on the other hand he maintains that his only way to be is as a Cherokee. Thecontinuous colonisation and stereotypification of his peoples in the USA, and theirimpossibility to be seen as themselves, which the artist feels deeply, cast light on hisaim to be a “homeless orphan”. Being truly a Cherokee however does not prevent hisbeing an “international artist”, but rather contributes to it, and vice versa.