National Anthropological Archives

Guide to Study for Two Views by Shan Goshorn, 2018

Summary

Collection ID:
NAA.2019-06
Creators:
Goshorn, Shan
Dates:
2018
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
1.75 Linear feet
1 Item
Artwork
Repository:
Container:
2019-06

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Study for Two Views is a woven reproduction of before-and-after portraits of Tom Torlino (1879), a Diné student at the Carlisle Indian School. The two portraits are woven together, creating one face out of two portraits.
Ink-jet print and acrylic paint on paper mounted on board. Signed, titled, and dated on mount recto.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Shan Goshorn (1957-2018) was an Eastern Band Cherokee Artist whose work addresses human rights issues, particularly those of indigenous peoples. Goshorn worked with many different media, including photography, painting, drawing, and sculpture. In 2008, Goshorn was commissioned to create illustrations of Cherokee basket patterns for the Department of the Interior Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Having closely studied the baskets and their construction, she then decided to try making them, and soon mastered complex designs. Goshorn became best known for her baskets, which represent a contemporary approach to a traditional art.
Goshorn's baskets are made of paper splints, and often incorporate historical texts and photographs. The paper is printed with either text or photographs, sometimes hand-painted, and then cut into splints. Typically the baskets have photographs as the warp, and text as the weft so the photographs are reformed with words running through them.
In 2013, Goshorn received a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, and spent time studying the Carlisle Indian School photographs by John N. Choate at the National Anthropological Archives. From this fellowship came more than five baskets that address the trauma inflicted by the boarding schools on young Indian children. Her work has been widely exhibited and is held in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian and many other private and public collections.
Sources used:
Philip Earenfight, ed. Shan Goshorn: Resisting the Mission. The Trout Gallery: Dickinson College, 2018.

Administration

Author
Gina Rappaport
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Study for Two Views was donated by NAA archivist Gina Rappaport in 2019, who received it as a gift from the artist in 2018.
Processing Information
Finding aid encoded by Gina Rappaport, 2019.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Study for Two Views is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Contact the repository for terms of use.

Related Materials
The National Anthropological Archives holds photographs of Carlisle Industrial Indian School, made by John N. Choate, which include the before-and-after photographs of Tom Torlino.
The Trout Gallery at Dickinson College holds Goshorn's basket Two Views, which weaves together the before-and-after portraits of Tom Torlino with several texts, including a Diné (Navajo) prayer for well-being, Torlino's school records, and family stories of Torlino's life.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Works of art Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Torlino, Tom Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
United States Indian School (Carlisle, Pa.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

National Anthropological Archives
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