The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) opened this exhibition by Dunne-za/Canadian artist Brian Jungen late in 2009. Jungen takes consumer objects: sports jerseys, Michael Jordan Nike sneakers, golf bags, plastic trash bins - and transforms them into sculptures that force us to take a new look at these objects. For example, the golf bags are turned into totem poles; the sports jerseys are woven into a fringed blanket in a Native American pattern, with names of NBA teams - Nuggets and Lakers - and players - Iverson and Bryant - still visible around the edges. It's a little hard to comprehend the full extent of one of the largest pieces in the show, Crux (as seen from those who sleep on the surface of the Earth under the night sky), 2008, a mobile that is hanging in the rotunda at NMAI, since the exhibition website itself only presents details of the various parts of the piece. Crux consists of 5 animals: a crocodile, a possum, a shark, an emu, and a sea eagle, made from steel and plastic luggage, and suspended from a wooden rowboat. The site does make it easy to find other views of the piece, since it provides links to the exhibition's flickr pool, blog posts from the Smithsonian itself, the exhibition brochure, and additional media coverage of the show.
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