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Bob Haozous (Chiricahua Apache, born 1943),
Portable Pueblo
, 1988
steel, 94 x 101 x 33 in.; 238.76 x 256.54 x 83.82 cm
Museum purchase with funds from Collectors' Choice 1990 and a National Endowment for the Arts Purchase, 1990.40
Portable Pueblo includes several popular, immediately recognizable symbols of the Southwest: the characteristic shapes of stone and adobe Pueblo villages; cacti; mountain peaks; fluffy clouds. Buzzing through and above them are cars and airplanes, carrying the tourists who flock to this scenic region. The wagon on which all these images perch is provided to make it easy for them to take away pieces of a very stereotypical West. Although Haozous seems to be primarily poking fun at acquisitive, non-Native visitors, Portable Pueblo is also a silent criticism of Native artists and artisans who contribute to the perpetuation of the Western stereotype.
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