Survival Map, 2021

Narrator: Looking at Survival Map, the artist Jeffrey Gibson reflected on the effect of turning the map on its side.

Jeffrey Gibson: The map of the United States really becomes a figure. And when I first saw it, it took me a minute to place the map and still want to continue seeing it as a figure draped in some sort of blanket or something. In many ways that we've seen Native figures shown before in painting. 

The other thing I really like is the words, “NDN humor causes people to survive.” And it's just something that I personally have been thinking about lately is Indian humor. I don't know if many people have experienced it if you're not from those communities, but it's humor which is really based in...addiction, abuse, traumatic situations, but also love and attractive people and stories about Indians.

The term NDN, which is like EN-DEE-EN, is something which has totally emerged out of Native communities relative to Indian humor. I oftentimes distinguish for myself when I use the word Indian versus Native American versus American Indian versus Indigenous versus Native. And NDN is a very specific Indian-to-Indian kind of term of endearment. But also I think of empowerment. And I would say the humor is one of the superpowers of Indians for sure.