Horses and Skateboards

We braved a stormy Saturday to reach 1 Battery Park and the old customs house that houses the New York branch of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The grand steps were windswept and the umbrellas that passersby wrestled with seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. I love these old buildings with their marble brass, high ceilings and grand staircases. There were just three exhibitions, one on horses and the native experience, another on skateboarders and a third on skin, contemporary work by native artists. My favorite work was by Sonya Kelliher-Combs thousands of needles strung with thread 8 feet up a stark white gallery wall, the lighting making geometric fabriclike shadows on the wall. The back of the wall, if you follow the thread, shows all the loose ends hanging down.