Tom Jones reception

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Tom Jones

A photograph of the sign for Black Hawk Motel.

"Black Hawk Motel," 2006.

media release: The Wisconsin Dells/An Altered Ho-Chunk Landscape 

Photography by Tom Jones in the Main Gallery

Exhibition Dates: December 7, 2023 – February 27, 2024, at the Sauk Prairie River Arts Center (105-9th Street, Prairie du Sac)

Reception: Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023 5:30-7:30pm (Artist Talk at 6pm)

Tom Jones’ artwork is a commentary on American Indian identity, experience, and perception.  He examines how American Indian culture is represented through popular culture and raises questions about these depictions of identity by non-natives and Natives alike. 

Tom Jones started photographing the Wisconsin Dells in 2006 and was later commissioned by the Museum of Wisconsin Art to photograph there again in 2018 for one year.  He has continued this project for the past five years to show the commodification of the ever-changing landscape of his Ho-Chunk homeland.

The Museum of Wisconsin Art describes Jones “as a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, [who] is acutely attuned to the discrepancy between tourist-oriented representations of Native Americans and the reality of Ho-Chunk history and material culture. His photographs document the present state of the appropriation and distortion of Native imagery at the Dells, a practice that began with the birth of the tourist industry in the nineteenth century.”  

Featured in the Lobby: Middle School, High School, and AP High School Art, featuring Sauk Prairie student artwork.

River Arts Center will be closed Dec 25 - Jan 2; however, an appointment to see the exhibition during that time frame can be made by emailing at manager@riverartsinc.org or info@riverartsinc.org.