What We Want, What We Need
What We Want, What We Need
Artist
Jeffrey Gibson
(Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, born 1972)
Date2014
MediumFound punching bag, glass beads, artificial sinew, copper jingles, nylon fringe, and steel chain
Dimensions71 × 14 × 14 in. (180.3 × 35.6 × 35.6 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2015.13
Accession number
2015.13
On View
On viewCollections
Label TextChoctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson’s punching bag is layered with a wool blanket adorned with beadwork, fringes, and twisted tobacco can lids—materials that can be found on Native American ladies’ jingle dresses. The work’s surprising combination of found objects and materials alludes to opposites, like power and domesticity, innocence and violence, femininity and masculinity. The beadwork is inspired by Plains Indian geometric designs and eyedazzling geometric patterns found in Op Art and Geometric Abstraction. In this work, seemingly contradictory positions are blended equally and harmoniously, demonstrating Gibson’s philosophy that varied cultural influences generate new ideas and creations. His punching bags can also be interpreted as symbols of Native American culture: assaulted over time, but still intact and beautiful. They are a synthesis of Gibson’s life experiences and observations. What We Want, What We Need explores what people (and perhaps cultures) want and need to achieve happiness.
