About REEL (2005)

A Co-Production of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s SiteLines series and the National Museum of the American Indian, New York (at the National Museum of the American Indian)

REEL (2005) by Tom Pearson (Coharie), is a site-specific work commissioned for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s SiteLines series at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) which turns the gaze back at the multiple levels of scrutiny within the old U.S. Customs House Rotunda. The performance explores the ideas of dominance which are inherently bricked into the architecture and puts pressure on the images of guardianship that manifest throughout–from the front-door security check point, to the hidden surveillance cameras on the wall, posted guards, and last but not least, images of colonial figures gazing down from potraits on the walls, Christopher Columbus among them. Pearson’s public offering intervenes to shift the point of view to one of a Native and integrated perspective that amplifies the dichotomies of the space by spotlighting the incongruity of Native cultural artifacts hidden behind glorified colonial facades. The projects’ goal is to warm the space, and ultimately reclaim it by shifting power to the performers as they dive into their own questions of inheritance, and through movement both furious and nuanced, incrementally reveal the seeds of reconciliation.