Renowned Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson has unveiled four large bronze animal sculptures in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, marking his latest major public art installation following his acclaimed U.S. Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale. The sculptures, collectively titled "The Animal That Therefore I Am," feature a deer, coyote, squirrel, and hawk positioned across the museum's Fifth Avenue facade.
During a Monday talk with Met curator Jane Panetta, Gibson traced the conceptual origins of these works back to paintings he created on animal hides in 2013. "While painting on hides, you come across scars. You come across hair follicles. You're reminded that it's an animal," Gibson explained. "Had I done these paintings on canvas, they could be read as geometric abstraction and formalism. But in this sense, you were reminded that there were 20 animals in the room with you, and I think that was such a turning point for me to understand how to shift the viewer rather than to shift what I was trying to accomplish."
The sculptures draw heavily from Indigenous kinship philosophies and global animistic traditions. "The sense of animism in early cultures globally was something I zeroed in on," Gibson said. "I've been talking for a while now about Indigenous kinship philosophies and worldviews, which are about honoring all living beings as extensions of ourselves." The artist found inspiration in Jacques Derrida's 1997 lecture series of the same title, initially considered unconventional for the French deconstructionist philosopher's focus on animals.
Gibson explained Derrida's relevance to his work, stating: "The more I read, I thought, well, this is about our placement of ourselves at the pinnacle of a hierarchy of living beings and not acknowledging how animals have their own integrity, their own community, their own forms of communication, and their own societies—many of which are much more sustainable than ours."
The choice of animals reflects Gibson's personal connection between the Met's Central Park location and his home in the Hudson River Valley, where he moved 13 years ago. "I look at the same mountains every day. I look at the same water," he shared. "We actually find ways to accommodate the animals that live there, because I feel more in their space than I feel like I can control them being in my space." All four animal species naturally inhabit both environments.
Each bronze sculpture is adorned with different ceremonial garments inspired by Native American regalia, which Gibson considers transformative rather than merely decorative. "There's something about that regalia which is a body in and of itself," the artist explained. "In no way is regalia the same as clothing. It is something which is imbued with the ability to transform oneself—while you're wearing it, you are a different being."
Despite creating three-dimensional sculptures, Gibson approaches his work from a painter's perspective. "I know I make three-dimensional objects, but I still think about them like four-sided paintings," he said. "I look from this side, and from that side, and that's how I determine if I'm interested in four sides—and even more than four sides." The sculptures are strategically positioned to be viewed by anyone walking along Fifth Avenue, making Indigenous philosophy and animistic worldviews accessible to the museum's diverse daily visitors.
This installation represents Gibson's continued exploration of Indigenous perspectives in contemporary art, following his successful Venice Biennale presentation and his ongoing exhibition at MASS MoCA, which runs until next fall. The Met commission solidifies his position as one of the most significant Indigenous voices in contemporary American art.
