Auriea Harvey:  Edmonia Triumphalis 

Production | Exhibition Grant

Edmonia Triumphalis by Auriea Harvey reimagines the life and legacy of Edmonia Lewis, the first Black and Native American (Anishinaabe) woman to achieve international recognition as a Neoclassical sculptor. Harvey’s installation at Tinworks envisions a symbolic journey that Lewis was never able to undertake—a visit to her older half-brother Samuel in Bozeman, Montana. Samuel was an artist in his own right, as well as a role model and support system for his talented sister. The project begins with a triumphal arch marking Edmonia’s “arrival,” constructed from rammed earth that has been excavated from the Tinworks site. This 12-foot-tall structure features plaques honoring both Edmonia and Samuel, along with sculptural components that mimic Italian spoglia—architectural elements reused from older buildings.

At the heart of the installation stands a polychrome fountain depicting Edmonia in a ceremonial barge, as though arriving triumphantly in Bozeman and is based in part on Lewis’s 1878 pamphlet describing Cleopatra’s entrance into Rome. Iconographically, the sculptural complex blends Egyptian, Mediterranean, and Anishinaabe elements. A winged Nike places a laurel crown on the central figure of Edmonia, who is seated in a chair based on her 1876 sculpture The Death of Cleopatra, a work funded by Black pioneers in Bozeman that is now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection. Starting from 3D scans, Harvey will digitally mold her sculpture prior to its fabrication. Alongside references to Edmonia’s postbellum works, Forever Free and Hiawatha, Harvey presents Lewis as an unfinished, mercurial character, seemingly in the process of rendering her own likeness using a hammer and chisel. Other figures in the boat unify the careers of both Lewis and Harvey, whose silhouette appears in the back of the boat as a Janus-faced Ephedrismós figure representing the unification of past and present.

For more information, visit: https://www.tinworksart.org/