Monarch Nation

Kevin Pourier, Valerie Pourier, Monarch Nation, 2019, carved bison horn, inlaid orange sandstone, white mother of pearl, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Kenneth R. Trapp Acquisition Fund, 2021.2, © 2019, Kevin Pourier
Kevin Pourier, Valerie Pourier, Monarch Nation, 2019, carved bison horn, inlaid orange sandstone, white mother of pearl, overall_​1: 3 34 in. × 3 in. × 11 34 in. (9.5 × 7.6 × 29.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Kenneth R. Trapp Acquisition Fund, 2021.2, © 2019, Kevin Pourier

Artwork Details

Title
Monarch Nation
Date
2019
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
overall_​1: 3 34 in. × 3 in. × 11 34 in. (9.5 × 7.6 × 29.8 cm)
Copyright
© 2019, Kevin Pourier
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Kenneth R. Trapp Acquisition Fund
Mediums Description
carved bison horn, inlaid orange sandstone, white mother of pearl
Classifications
Subjects
  • Animal — insect — butterfly
Object Number
2021.2

Artwork Description

Kevin and Valerie Pourier are Oglala Lakota husband-and-wife artists from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. For twenty years, they have created sculptural forms from buffalo horn, a material used by the Lakota since time immemorial. The Lakota name Pte Oyate translates as “buffalo people,” and the buffalo is respected and integrated into everyday and ceremonial life. The Pouriers have found examples of historic buffalo horns adorned with beads and inlaid with earth pigments within museum collections.


For Monarch Nation, the Pouriers have inlaid each butterfly in orange sandstone and white mother-of-pearl shell. Depicting the butterflies in flight, they reference the annual migration of the insects from Canada to Mexico. Paying tribute to both the buffalo and the butterflies connects the artists to their ancestors and Lakota lifeways, in which all beings and forms of connections are acknowledged with respect and care.


This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World, 2022

Verbal Description

A delicate sculpture covered in monarch butterflies, in the shape of a large feather arching up in the middle and balancing on its two ends. About one foot long, the three-inch-wide half of the sculpture is like an elongated, downward facing ladle. The other half is a skinny, curving rod. A shiny deep black color covers most of the handle, the surface underneath the ladle shape, and outlines the ladle’s top surface.

On the top surface, underneath the butterflies, the background is a rough texture made up of tiny black-and-white dots indented into the surface. Sitting slightly raised on top of this gray texture, several large monarch butterflies overlap one another in different ways, as if the butterflies are in flight. Their wings are bright orange with black lines. There are white spots around the outer sections of the wings. The shiny surface of each butterfly contrasts with the dotted, rougher background.

Works by this artist (10 items)

Carrie Mae Weems, Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me - A Story in 5 Parts, 2012, video installation and mixed media, color, sound; 18:29 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women's History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, 2023.9A-G, © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me — A Story in 5 Parts
Date2012
video installation and mixed media, color, sound; 18:29 minutes
Not on view
Carrie Mae Weems, Suspended Belief, from the series Constructing History, 2008, archival pigment print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2022.48.5, © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Suspended Belief, from the series Constructing History
Date2008
archival pigment print
Not on view
Carrie Mae Weems, A Woman Observes, from the series Constructing History, 2008, archival pigment print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2022.48.1, © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
A Woman Observes, from the series Constructing History
Date2008
archival pigment print
Not on view

Exhibitions

Quilt featuring the portrait of a woman
This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World
May 13, 2022April 2, 2023
This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World showcases the dynamic landscape of American craft today.

More Artworks from the Collection

Salvatore Mancini, Narragansett Electric, 2000, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Joseph A. Chazan, M.D., 2002.80.8
Narragansett Electric
Date2000
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Salvatore Mancini, Remains of Lock, Millville, 2000, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Joseph A. Chazan, M.D., 2002.80.6
Remains of Lock, Millville
Date2000
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Keisha Scarville, Chair, 2001, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Perkins Center for the Arts, 2002.17, © 2001, Keisha Scarville
Chair
Date2001
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Salvatore Mancini, Eel Fisherman, 2000, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Joseph A. Chazan, M.D., 2002.80.2
Eel Fisherman
Date2000
gelatin silver print
Not on view