A Custom Exhibit Build for Frazier History Museum
Womb of Creation
Project Overview
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Exhibits, Art, and Entertainment
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Womb of Creation is an antechamber installation for COMMONWEALTH: DIVIDED WE FALL, a new permanent exhibition for the Frazier History Museum that opened summer 2022. Womb is an immersive installation that transitions visitors into the greater exhibition through simulating the sights and sounds of precolonial Kentucky, combining the flora and fauna, and Native American experience of Kentucky that existed for thousands of years in pre-colonial Kentucky.
The Frazier History Museum came to us with a request that we partner with them to research, imagine, design and build an experiential immersive installation – a portal to their new exhibition so to speak – that attempts to capture the perspective of Native Americans in precolonial Kentucky.
We identified and partnered with representatives of the three federally recognized tribes historically found in Kentucky – the Shawnee, Cherokee, and Chickasaw Nations – to develop content that was true to the experiences and histories of the tribes.
Special thanks to the tribal representatives, scholars, and native culture and language specialists who contributed to guiding this project from idea to installation, we and the people of Kentucky deeply appreciate your commitment to telling the history of Kentucky accurately.
LaDonna Brown, Historic Preservation Officer at Chickasaw Nation
Maggie Boyett, Director Of Communications, Shawnee Tribe
Choogie Kingfisher, Cultural Coordinator at United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
A. Gwynn Henderson, Education Director, Kentucky Archaeological Survey, Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology, Western Kentucky University
Chickasaw Origin Story
Chickasaw Origin Story
This installation feature is a two part feature, the CHICKASAW ORIGIN STORY ANIMATION and the CHICKASAW ORIGIN STORY VOICEOVER. LaDonna Brown, Historic Preservation Officer at the Chickasaw Nation was our Chickasaw Nation cultural coordinator between Infinity Production”s research and creative production – also, an essential collaborator on this feature.
Special Thanks To: Cherokee Nation member Choogie Kingfisher who voiced the script developed between LaDonna and project Art Director Daniel Dean, heard in the video here.
Five Unique Pieces
A floor projection of a river populated with animals from Chickasaw, Shawnee, and Cherokee origin stories swim around the installation.
We collaborated with LaDonna Brown, Director, Research & Cultural Interpretation at Chickasaw Nation to develop and produce the animated Chickasaw Origin Story. A storybook style was used to bring to life the key components of the Chickasaw Nation’s origin story while a motion activated sensor triggers a voiceover that helps visitors understand the identities, priorities, and values of the Chickasaw people.
The Emergence of the World
A 6.1 surround sound system was design to deliver a 12 minute immersive soundscape that takes listeners through the elemental origins of the earth (earthquakes, lava, landslides) to thunderstorms and winds and rains to the emergence of life. Speakers placed in a circle around the installation allow wrap visitors in a soundscape filled with the sounds of local species of bats and insects woven together with bellowing elk that once frequently roamed the hills of Kentucky. One can hear the calls of whippoorwills, pileated woodpeckers, and common crows fly around the room as footsteps are heard circling the room, fire crackling, eventually voices emerge. Speaking in Native American languages of tribes historically residing in Kentucky (Shawneee, Chickasaw, Cherokee), these voices begin to talk, recite poetry, sing tribal songs, and play Native music.
Special Thanks to Maggie Boyett, a Shawnee artist and poet that allowed us integrate her Invocation Poem into the soundscape – you can hear her reading her poem in Shawnee in the latter part of the soundscape, representing one aspect of emerging creativity in human culture.
Audio engineering by Dave Givan.
Along the curved walls that enclose the river projection is the Mural of Security. These wall drawings are meant to provide an aesthetic connection between installation features while providing additional content specific to how First Americans lived. Many plants and animals were used for multiple purposes, from food to medicine to dyes for clothing and tools. The selected flora and fauna is listed below with accompanying, NOT exhaustive, links to additional contextual information generally related to First American’s use of these particular. Our research will be uploaded to the Frazier Museum’s a
Special thanks to artists Ehren Reed and Zander Harlan whose hand painting on black muslin brought these sketches to life.
