Akwesasne artist wins juried art show with salute to ironworkers

An Akwesasne artist's sculpture celebrating Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) ironworkers won the top prize at his community's juried art show and market last weekend. 

Karhatiron Perkins won Best in Show for his Lunch on a Highbeam sculpture, which is his take on a famous 1932 photo of 11 ironworkers having lunch on a beam 260 metres off the ground in New York City. 

"Growing up, I always thought those were all Mohawk men," said Perkins, about the famous photo.

In Perkins's bronze and metal cast piece there are nine ironworkers sitting on a beam in ribbon shirts representing the nine Haudenosaunee clans: turtle, eel, wolf, bear, snipe, beaver, deer, hawk and heron. Instead of lunch boxes, they have bowls meant to represent a Kanienʼkehá:ka staple, corn soup.

Perkins comes from a family of ironworkers; his father and grandfather were in the trade. 

"I wanted to do a piece just like highlighting the Native men who were ironworkers," said Perkins. 

In the late 1950s, Kanienʼkehá:ka ironworkers made up about 15 per cent of New York's ironworkers and had a hand in the construction of many iconic buildings like the Rockefeller Center, Empire State building and Chrysler building.

There are believed to be three ironworkers from Kahnawà:ke, a Kanienʼkehá:ka community near Montreal, in Lunch atop a Skyscraper, according to community members. The men are thought to be Peter Skaronhiati Stacey, Joseph Jocks and Peter Sakaronhiotane Rice. 

All artists from Akwesasne

The Akwesasne art market and juried art show, which took place July 25-26 in the community straddling the Ontario, Quebec and New York state borders, was hosted by Akwesasne Travel and gives out a grand prize of $2,500 US (about $3,400 Cdn.)

This year there were 44 artists who displayed work in the show, said Randi Barreiro, a marketing specialist for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe Office of Economic Development and works with Akwesasne Travel. 

"This year's Best in Show was just a phenomenal piece," said Barreiro. 

"I'm a daughter and a granddaughter of ironworkers so I immediately could recognize his inspiration."

All of the participants in the show were from Akwesasne. 

"It's really a spotlight of the talent that we have here in the community," said Barreiro. 

Cultural elements

Perkins is a recent graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. and made the sculpture for a class. This was the first time he had submitted to an art competition. 

"It felt unreal; I didn't really believe it," said Perkins about winning the show. 

Perkins is a multi-disciplinary artist in drawing, painting, ceramics, and making digital art. Right now he is busy selling his work at markets. 

"Most of my art that I make has to do with cultural elements," said Perkins. 

"[I] mainly create to empower people to practise their culture and be interested in it."

Perkins said he would love to see the sculpture one day in a museum or on display at a community building.