The Idea Space at Colorado College - Interdisciplanary Experimental Arts


Bently Spang: Cyberskins October 12– December 12, 2007, Coburn Gallery Artist's Reception: Friday, October 12, 4:30 PM The technologically wired costumes worn by performers in the Tekcno Powwow take on a new life in a gallery installation created by Bently Spang. Drawing from traditional and high tech cultures, Cyberskins are powwow regalia for the 21st Century.


ARTIST'S STATEMENT: "The term "redskin", as Native peoples on this continent were called at one time (and which certain sports teams continue to use), emerges from a time in this country when one could collect a bounty for the skin of a dead Native person. Cyberskins, in direct contrast to this brutal act, is the act of creating a new skin. Cyberskins are technologically advanced exteriors that draw inspiration from current powwow regalia, traditional information and high tech culture to form an impenetrable shield. They are designed specifically to meet the demands of today's Native American Indian Aboriginal Indigenous Native person, as they continue to morph and grow."
Bently Spang is a multi-disciplinary visual artist whose work focuses on his experience as a contemporary Cheyenne. His mixed media sculpture, video, performance, and installation pieces explore contemporary Native existence with pragmatism, humor, and deep introspection. Spang has a BA in art and business from MSU-Billings, and a MFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has exhibited widely in the US, Europe, Mexico, Canada, and South America. Recent exhibitions include: Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 2 (Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2006), Tracing Journeys: Maps as Metaphors (Paris Gibson Square Museum, Great Falls, MT, 2005), and a one-person performance, One Gone Native (Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, 2005). Spang has published numerous critical articles and catalog essays on current trends in contemporary Native art and is the author of two children's books. He has curated regional and national exhibitions for the Denver Art Museum and the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe, NM, among others. Coburn Gallery is located on the Colorado College campus in the Worner Center, 902 N. Cascade Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO.