I first photographed this doorstop in front of a Santa Fe art gallery in 2006.
(Click on thumbnail below). I used it then as an example of layering. On my most recent visit, I photographed it again but in a different way. Instead of inviting my viewers to go inside the gallery, I build the image around the symbolism of an Indian turned into a chair, and put into the context of a poster promoting wine tasting, featuring other Indians. A heavily romanticized version of Indian culture is heavily marketed by the Santa Fe art community and this doorstop is intended to stop visitors in their tracks, and perhaps go inside to buy something. I see it as symbolizing the Indian as a sentimental, passive and mildly amusing representative of the stereotypical Old West. It transforms a personification of what once was a proudly independent culture into a clever contemporary convenience – a chair. I also see it as a metaphor for the proverbial “wooden Indian,” – a throwback to the “cigar store Indians” that once advertised cigar shops. Only here, the product becomes art and wine. This time I was able to photograph the scene in late afternoon light, adding a shadow to the scene. The shadow, slowly enveloping the wine-tasting poster, adds still another layer of symbolism to this image. The shadow replicates the shape of the Indian, but in shadow, the Indian appears as faceless as his culture -- a culture often treated as a historical artifact. Ironically, when I compare this image with my 2005 photograph, I notice that the painted Indian seems to be gradually fading away, just as the gradual erosion of American Indian tradition.