Antje Majewski & Jen Tiger: Osage Orange

Osage Orange presents a long-term research-based project by Antje Majewski that has been developed since 2009 in various groups of work, all emanating from the fruit of the Osage orange tree. Beginning with this tree, a multi-voiced tale of indigenous culture, colonization, land use, and ecological destruction unfolds. Videos featuring the Osage elder and bowmaker Raymond Lasley, as well as forester Mark Bays, reveal the history of the displacement of the Osage Nation, the end of the buffalo hunt, and the settlers’ encroachment upon the prairie landscape. A dialogue with the artist Jen Tiger expands the project to include issues of disenfranchisement, forced assimilation, and cultural memory. In subtle text-image collages and jewelry designs, Tiger draws on archival materials to distill the history of her ancestors. New paintings by Antje Majewski, dedicated to the fruit itself in all its strangeness, stand at the culmination of the project.