Il Calume’ della pace

“CALUMET”, the Dakota Peace Pipe, is a conceptual artwork that engages the themes of tradition, identity, appropriation, violating agreements, power, corporations’ interests and lobbying, greed, environmental issues, human rights, minorities. It portrays the native Americans traditional peace pipe also known as Calumet made by pieces of plumbing pipes and fittings. The combined use the two meanings of the word “pipe” (a smoking tool and a conduit for fluid materials for plumbing and other uses ….) reveals the clear reference to the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline that has been recently officially approved and will cut through the land of Standing Rock, violating the original Treaty, potentially contaminating underground water reserves and even putting at risk the survival of the local tribe.

The base is covered in shiny black varnish (tar, oil) overflowing on the sides almost like a cross section view of the land into which the oil seeps in contaminating soil and water reserves. Its surface is split in two by a groove that seem to be a deep cut, the long scar that the pipeline will represent. At the lower part of the base is red, indicating the blood spilled in the many wars, and still lying underneath the land’s surface although buried and hidden underground! The vertical support is a threaded rod, metaphor of the oil drilling augers (the pipe can be rotated and be set in different positions). Some of the Calumet is left in its bare iron color other parts are painted in two traditional native colors (red and light blue). The conceptual artworks of Duchamp, Man Ray, Cattellan and many others influenced this piece.

A reminder of today’s social injustice, class disparities, minorities misrepresentations, a warning of their consequences, a sad stark contrast between the message of peace of the traditional Calumet and the modern pipeline; the artist intends to build a similar peace pipe sculpture in large scale and display it possibly on location.