Ojibwe artist Andrea Carlson’s focus on the land includes both symbolic and specific references to features that hold relevance to Indigenous people. In Exit, Carlson has illustrated two iconic carved mica artifacts (the open hand and the falcon claw) that were discovered within burial sites of the original inhabitants of southern Ohio’s Scioto River Valley region.
The humanoid form at the center encompasses what appears to be a topographic map, its feet pointing toward the horizon. It represents an ancient Indigenous earth mound in Wisconsin called the Man Mound. Carlson explains, “Hundreds of massive, shallow mounds depicting birds, lizards, men, panthers, and snakes blanket the landscape. Many of the ancient mounds have been destroyed, dissected by roads, or flattened by settler farmers who couldn’t or wouldn’t see the mounds for what they were.”
The two hands on the lower portion of the image are gesturing “exit” or “outside” in American Sign Language. In front of the hand on the left, which appears to be holding a crumpled sign bearing English letters, is a small, carved Indigenous artifact known as a popeyed birdstone because of its shape. Other elements of the landscape, such as the mountains and trees that frame the central motifs, are delineated in a way that suggests layering and the accumulation of time.
Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe, born 1979), Exit. Color screenprint, 2018. 33 1/2 × 47 3/4 in. (85.1 × 121.3 cm). Winthrop H. Perry Fund, 2023.378. On view in the Wolfe Gallery Mezzanine (Gallery 2A).
Image Description: A rectangular image oriented horizontally that depicts a landscape with mountains in the background and various elements arranged symmetrically with a red sign reading “EXIT” at the upper center, the top of the letters cut off as if cropped out of the frame. Below the exit sign are two open lavender hands, each overlaid with a pale-yellow falcon claw. Below the hands and claws, in the center of the image, is a topographical map in a humanoid shape. Other imagery surrounding the center of the image includes two closed hands and the gnarled trunks of bent trees.
