• Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Among Protectors (Hawthorne Road and the Pell Case), 2021. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Susan M. Weber Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Study Room, 2021. Photo: Jenny Gorman

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Susan M. Weber Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Study Room, 2021. Group photo of research collaborators and interview participants in front of their portraits by Martha Schnee. Left to right: Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, Martha Schnee, Lauren Ruiz, Steven Molina Contreras, Donnamarie Barnes, Tela Troge, K. Anthony Jones, Minerva Perez, Kelly Dennis. Photo: Jenny Gorman.

  • Interview and research notes by the artist, Tomashi Jackson.

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Susan M. Weber Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Study Room, 2021. Photo: Jenny Gorman

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Susan M. Weber Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Study Room, 2021. Photo: Jenny Gorman

Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim

ARCHIVE

 

In 2020, the Parrish Art Museum invited Tomashi Jackson to create an exhibition that would consider the entire Museum as a site for works that transcend disciplinary boundaries, encouraging new ways to experience art, architecture, landscape, and community. Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim (July 11-November 7, 2021) centered on the historic and contemporary lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and Latinx families on the East End of Long Island and was the culmination of a 12-month research project that included oral interviews with historians and community leaders, historical images, and analysis of news articles. The exhibition opened a discourse around collective memory and historical narratives of labor, educational access, transportation, and land rights, bringing to light systemic racial segregation in the area. Jackson continued the research and created the paintings for the exhibition while in residence at The Watermill Center in spring/summer 2021 as an Inga Maren Otto Fellow, in partnership with the Parrish Art Museum.

Jackson often describes her practice as centered around meaningful generosity. In this spirit, Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim Archive presents key elements of Jackson’s research which served as source material for a series of paintings, a publication, educational material, and a sound installation. According to the artist, each of these components make up the artwork.

THE PAINTINGS

  • The Three Sisters, 2021, Acrylic, wampum dust, and soil from the Parrish Art Museum grounds, a former potato field, on canvas, cotton textiles, paper potato bags, and paper bags with archival prints on PVC marine vinyl mounted on a handcrafted walnut, Douglas fir, and redwood awning structure with brass hooks and grommets, 95 × 66 ½ × 12 ½ inches, Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York, Transformed halftone line image painted on substrate: Eastville residents, between 1880–1915, tintypes. Courtesy Eastville Community Historical Society Cropped halftone line image printed on PVC marine vinyl: Loretta Hunter-Silva, Dorothy Dennis, Denise Silva- Dennis, Pauline Kirby, and Jeremy Dennis gathered at the Hunter-Silva home (Ma’s House), 1992. Photo: Avery Dennis, Jr. Courtesy Silva Dennis Family Archive. Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Norman and Liliane Peck/Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Lobby, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Among Fruits (Big Shane and the Farmer), 2021 Acrylic, wampum dust, and soil from the Parrish Art Museum grounds, a former potato field, on canvas, paper potato bags, and paper bags with archival prints on PVC marine vinyl mounted on a handcrafted walnut awning structure with brass hooks and grommets 93 ½ × 65 ½ × 12 ¼ inches Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York Transformed halftone line image painted on substrate: Shane Weeks with hen of the woods mushroom. Cropped halftone line image printed on PVC marine vinyl: A worker in a South Fork potato field, ca. 1950. Courtesy Express News Group. Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Among Fruits (Big Shane and the Farmer), 2021. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Among Gardens, 2021, Acrylic and soil from the Parrish Art Museum grounds, a former potato field, on canvas, cotton textiles, and paper bags with archival prints on PVC marine vinyl mounted on a handcrafted Douglas fir and redwood awning structure with brass hooks and grommets, 92 ½ × 67 ½ × 12 ¼ inches, Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York, Transformed halftone line image painted on substrate: Steven Molina Contreras, Mi Familia Inmigrante, in my Mother’s Salon, New York, USA, 2020. Cropped halftone line image printed on PVC marine vinyl: Marvin Dozier and students of the Bridgehampton Childcare & Recreational Center, ca. 1970. Courtesy the Southampton Youth Association. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Among Heirs (Niamuck and Azurest) , 2021, Acrylic and wampum dust on canvas, cotton textiles, and paper bags with archival prints on PVC marine vinyl mounted on a handcrafted walnut awning structure with brass hooks and grommets, 75 × 77 ¾ × 9 ¼ inches, Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York, Transformed halftone line image painted on substrate: Ethan Smith, Kelly Dennis, Peter Smith Jr., gathered at the Hunter-Silva home (Ma’s House), 1991. Photo: Denise Silva-Dennis. Courtesy Silva-Dennis Family Archive Cropped halftone line image printed on PVC marine vinyl: Group on Azurest Beach, Sag Harbor, NY, date unknown. Courtesy Eastville Community Historical Society Collection. Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Among Sisters and Brothers (Three Families), 2021, Acrylic and soil from the Parrish Art Museum grounds, a former potato field, on canvas, cotton textiles, paper potato bags, and paper bags with archival prints on PVC marine vinyl mounted on a handcrafted redwood awning structure with brass hooks and grommets, 74½ × 75½ × 9¼ inches, Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York Transformed halftone line image painted on substrate: The Wingfield sisters (standing, left to right) Alice Wingfield, Louise Barnard, Roxanne Dozier, Florence Brown, and Blanche Cherry (seated), 2001. Courtesy Richard “Juni” Wingfield Cropped halftone line image printed on PVC marine vinyl: Group on Azurest Beach, Sag Harbor, NY, date unknown. Courtesy Eastville Community Historical Society Collection. Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Among Harvests (Aserrin de colores), 2021, Acrylic and soil from the Parrish Art Museum grounds, a former potato field, on canvas, cotton textiles, paper potato bags, and paper bags with archival prints on PVC marine vinyl mounted on a handcrafted walnut awning structure with brass hooks and grommets, 73 ½ × 78 × 9 ¼ inches, Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York, Transformed halftone line image painted on substrate: Puerto Rican immigrants working on a potato farm, ca. 1950. Courtesy the Migration Division Collection at the Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York Cropped halftone line image printed on PVC marine vinyl: “Most migrant workers now coming to Long Island are from Guatemala, México, El Salvador and Colombia,” according to a state Department of Labor spokesman, 2013. Courtesy The Suffolk Times / Barbara Ellen Koch (file photo). Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Among Protectors (Hawthorne Road and the Pell Case), 2021, Acrylic and wampum dust on canvas, paper potato bags, and paper bags with archival prints on PVC marine vinyl mounted on a handcrafted Douglas fir awning structure with brass hooks and grommets, 74 × 76 ¾ × 9 ¼ inches, Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York, Transformed halftone line image painted on substrate: Doreen Dennis sits in front of a bulldozer to protect against illegal development on the Shinnecock Neck territory, 1996. Courtesy Express News Group Cropped halftone line image printed on PVC marine vinyl: Chenae Bullock sings a song to ask for protection of the ancestors and for help from the universe to protect sacred Shinnecock burial sites in the Shinnecock Hills, 2018. Courtesy Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara. Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Vessels of Light (From Jeremy, Juni, and Steven), 2021, PVC mounted on museum windows, 8 × 32 feet, Vessels of Light (From Jeremy, Juni, and Steven) comprises three enlarged photographs contributed by interviewees: an image of Shinnecock children dressed in regalia and gathered at Powwow grounds in 1993, provided by Jeremy Dennis; an image of female descendants of a Southampton family of Black migrant farm workers, provided by Richard “Juni” Wingfield; and Juntos, New York, USA, 2020, a photograph by Steven Molina Contreras. Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Norman and Liliane Peck/Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Lobby, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Left to right: The Three Sisters, 2021. Vessels of Light (From Jeremy, Juni, and Steven), 2021. Photo: Dario Lasagni

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Left to right: Among Harvests (Aserrin de colores), 2021. Among Protectors (Hawthorne Road and the Pell Case), 2021. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Left to right: Among Fruits (Big Shane and the Farmer), 2021. Among Harvests (Aserrin de colores), 2021. Among Protectors (Hawthorne Road and the Pell Case), 2021. Photo: Dario Lasagni.

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Robert Lehman Foundation Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Left to right: Collaborative Work: Martha Schnee with Tomashi Jackson, Reproductions of original ink on vellum drawings and notes from The Land Claim interviews. Among Heirs, 2021. Among Sisters and Brothers, 2021. Photo: Dario Lasagni

  • Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim. Installation view: Susan M. Weber Gallery, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Study Room, 2021. Photo: Jenny Gorman

The Three Sisters
The Three Sisters speaks to the importance of matriarchy, a common theme that surfaced during Tomashi Jackson’s conversations with members of the Shinnecock, Black, and Latinx communities of the East End. For this painting, Jackson chose to incorporate images showing intergenerational groups of women together—a tintype of two Black women and early residents from Eastville, Sag Harbor, and a picture of a Shinnecock family gathering. She collapsed their histories into one by hand-painting photographic images in halftone lines and overlaying them with images printed on transparent vinyl strips, emphasizing the interconnectedness of these communities. The Three Sisters also refers to the North American Indigenous farming intercropping method of planting corn, squash, and beans together in mounds in which each life form helps the others to grow and thrive.

Among Protectors (Hawthorne Road and the Pell Case)
Throughout her conversations with members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Tomashi Jackson learned about their ongoing struggle to recover stolen land. To create Among Protectors, Jackson juxtaposed news images from two events, 25 years apart, that each marked significant gains in the battle. The image from 1996, painted in blue halftone lines on the canvas, shows a member of the Shinnecock Nation sitting in the path of a truck to protect unlawful desecration of Shinnecock land. A court case in 1997 ruled that the buyer of the land, William Pell, was unlawfully intruding and the land was successfully defended. The image printed in red on the vinyl strips depicts a member of the Shinnecock Nation singing during a prayer service in 2020 at a construction site where human remains of a Shinnecock Nation member were unearthed. After months of protest, in June 2021, the Southampton Town Board voted unanimously to purchase a conservation easement through the Community Preservation Fund for 4.5 acres at the peak of Sugar Loaf Hill, the most sacred ancestral Shinnecock burial grounds. On July 20, 2021, The Peconic Land Trust closed on the parcel with the intention to preserve and return it to the Shinnecock Nation.

Among Fruits (Big Shane and the Farmer)
One theme that emerged from Tomashi Jackson’s research centered around meaningful generational experiences of labor, and how it manifested and intersected among the Shinnecock, Black, and Latinx communities of the East End. In Among Fruits (Big Shane and the Farmer), Jackson hand-painted an image of Shinnecock Nation member, artist, educator, hunter, and fisherman Shane Weeks holding a large hen of the woods mushroom that he harvested on the Reservation. The press image printed on the vinyl strips overlaying the painting depicts a Black worker in a South Fork potato field in the 1950s. Enhanced with locally sourced material—Shinnecock wampum dust, cotton textiles, and soil from a local potato field—the painting juxtaposes two opposite approaches to sourcing food: the unsustainable, and often exploitative practice of monocropping and the traditional food gathering.

IMAGE ARCHIVE

  • The Wingfield sisters (standing, left to right) Alice Wingfield, Louise Barnard, Roxanne Dozier, Florence Brown, and Blanche Cherry (seated), 2001. Courtesy Richard “Juni” Wingfield.

  • Enslaved Person Staircase at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, Shelter Island, NY. Courtesy of Donnamarie Barnes, Sylvester Manor Educational Farm.

  • Shinnecock Reservation youth in regalia at the Powwow grounds, 1993. Courtesy Jeremy Dennis.

  • Humpback Whale, Hampton Bays, NY. Courtesy Shane Weeks

  • Pyrrhus Concer, date unknown. Born in Southampton on March 17, 1814, to his enslaved mother, Violet, Concer inherited her status as the property of Captain Nathan Cooper. Upon gaining freedom, Concer became a prominent whaler and philanthropist in Southampton. Courtesy the Southampton Historical Society.

  • Philippe Cheng, Untitled, 2018 Courtesy Philippe Cheng

  • The Interdependence March, Sag Harbor, NY 2019. This event held on July 14, 2019 was co-sponsored by OLA, Organizacion Latino Americana of the East End, in response to the hard-lined immigration policies of the former president and his administration. Courtesy Christopher Patrick.

  • Mahala M. Wingfield and Willie L. Spence, 1959. Courtesy Richard Wingfield.

  • Cousins playing with a toy train set at Ma's House on Shinnecock Reservation. Pictured Left to Right: Ethan Smith, Kelly Dennis, Peter Smith Jr., 1991. Courtesy Kelly Dennis.

  • Mr. and Mrs. Wingfield Celebrate their 50th Anniversary. Courtesy Richard “Juni” Wingfield.

  • Julia Dyd Havens Johnson, date unknown. Julia Dyd Havens Johnson was born into enslavement on Shelter Island ca. 1810. Her mother, Dido, was enslaved by Nicoll Havens and was so until the abolition of slavery in New York in 1827. After Dido’s death, Julia inherited the land her mother shared with her husband, Comus Fanning. Over the next forty years, her land was bought from her at far below market price until she was left with nothing. Courtesy Sylvester Manor Educational Farm Archive Collection.

  • Denise Silva-Dennis and her son, Jeremy Dennis, standing in front of her mother’s house, otherwise known as Ma’s House, on the Shinnecock Reservation. Southampton, NY, August 2020. Fine art photographer Jeremy Dennis has recently renovated Ma’s House and established it as an artist space and residency for BIPOC artists. Courtesy Durell Godfrey.

  • Puerto Rican immigrants working on a potato farm, ca.1950. Courtesy the Migration Division Collection at the Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York

  • Abandoned building on Hillcrest Avenue. As fondly described by project contributor Richard “Juni” Wingfield, this building was often used as a tutoring center by Southampton resident, advocate, and philanthropist Ceal Havemeyer. Ceal worked closely with the children in the community, teaching them how to garden and assisting them with their coursework in this building after school. By teaching the neighborhood children the importance of gardening, Ceal instilled the importance of sustainability within a community. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz.

  • St. David AME Zion Church Cemetery. Established in 1857 by Samuel Butler, Elymus Derby, and David Hempstead. Sag Harbor, NY. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz

  • Lifelong resident Odell Ferebee in front of his home on Hillcrest Avenue, or “The Hill,” in Southampton, NY, 2021. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz.

  • The Southampton African American Museum. Established 2021. Southampton, NY. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz.

  • Sign for Sag Harbor Hills, a historic Black community in Sag Harbor, NY. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz.

  • Pyrrhus Concer Homestead. After years of efforts by Eastville Community Historical Society Director and founding member of the Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, the Pyrrhus Concer Homestead was purchased by the Town of Southampton and marked a historic site in 2015. Southampton, NY. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz

  • Pyrrhus Concer Homestead. After years of efforts by Eastville Community Historical Society Director and founding member of the Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, the Pyrrhus Concer Homestead was purchased by the Town of Southampton and marked a historic site in 2015. Southampton, NY. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz

  • The former First Baptist Church in Bridgehampton. Originally built as a firehouse in 1908, the building operated as a church from 1924 to the mid-1970s. It was purchased by the Dia Art Foundation in 1979 and is now the Dan Flavin Institute. Bridgehampton, NY. Courtesy Lauren Ruiz.

  • Group on Azurest Beach, Sag Harbor, NY (date unknown). Courtesy Eastville Community Historical Society Collection.

  • Doreen Dennis- Arrindell of the Shinnecock Nation sitting in the path of a truck to protect unlawful desecration of Shinnecock land. Dennis- Arrindell reportedly stated: “I just acted without thinking about anything except that the land had to be protected,” she said. “I just knew it had to be stopped.” The Pell case soon followed in 1997 and the land was successfully defended. October 1996. Courtesy Express News Group.

  • Loretta "Princess Arrow" Silva at a farm in Virginia during a family vacation, ca 1997. Courtesy Jeremy Dennis.

  • Beach Group - Ninevah Beach, Sag Harbor ca. 1987 Courtesy Eastville Community Historical Society Collection

  • The last of the Shinnecock Indians L.I. N.Y. / B.M. Franklin, Flushing, N.Y. 1884.  Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 

  • David H. Burr Map of the County of Suffolk 1841. Courtesy Hope Sandrow and Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library

  • Shinnecock Canal Canoe Place, 2020. Courtesy Hope Sandrow

  • Marvin Dozier and Bridgehampton Childcare & Recreational Center students, c. 1970s. Courtesy the Southampton Youth Association

  • Gravestone of David H. Hempstead, Mary P. Hempstead, Henry Green, and Mary J. Hempstead. Courtesy Eastville Community Historical Society Collection

  • A worker in the South Fork potato fields ca. 1950. Courtesy Express News Group

  • St. David AME Zion Church, Sag Harbor, NY. Courtesy Eastville Community Historical Society Collection

 

As part of the exhibition, one of the galleries was transformed into an interactive Study Room, offering an immersion into the creative process and research methodology that informed The Land Claim. It featured the archival photographs that had been generously provided by families, historical societies, libraries, and news sources—many of which are clearly visible in Jackson’s paintings.

INTERVIEWS

Beginning in January 2020, Jackson led in-depth interviews with members of Indigenous, Black, and Latinx and communities of the East End. They included Donnamarie Barnes, Director of History and Heritage at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm in Shelter Island; Bonnie Cannon, Executive Director of the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center (BHCCRC); Jeremy Dennis, a fine art photographer and Shinnecock Indian Nation member; Kelly Dennis, an attorney specializing in Federal Indian law and Secretary of the Shinnecock Council of Trustees; Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Eastville Community Historical Society; Minerva Perez, Executive Director of OLA (Organización Latino-Americana) of Eastern Long Island; Tela Loretta Troge, an attorney and counselor at law; and Richard “Juni” Wingfield, a long-time community liaison for the Southampton School District.

Throughout the process, Jackson worked with artist and educator Martha Schnee and research scholar K. Anthony Jones to transcribe and analyze the interviews. Schnee also drew portraits and notes during the interview sessions. All images are reproductions of original ink on vellum drawings and notes by Martha Schnee (American, born 1993) from The Land Claim interviews, 2021.

  • Martha Schnee, “Black gardens as works of art” — Richard “Juni” Wingfield on strength and sustenance, 2021.

    To Make a Life

    RICHARD “JUNI” WINGFIELD

    Community liaison for the Southampton School District

    Juni shares the history of his family’s migration to the East End of Long Island in the 1920s and explains how the strength of women sustained the community, especially through gardening and farming.

    READ              LISTEN

  • This is What We Have

    TELA LORETTA TRODGE, ESQ.

    Attorney and counselor at law

    Tela’s conversation considers the traditional agricultural and whaling practices of the Shinnecock Nation as they apply to the community’s emphasis on education and sustainability.

    READ              LISTEN

  • To Belong to A Certain Place on Earth

    JEREMY DENNIS

    Fine art photographer and Shinnecock Indian Nation member

    In his interview, Jeremy reflects on the concept of “home” in its connection to the landscape, emphasizing the cultural significance of communal living among the Shinnecock people, and the Shinnecock Reservation as a site of re-spite for many minority groups and the only affordable venue to host gatherings and cultural events on the East End of Long Island.

    READ              LISTEN

  • That Village Type of Mentality

    BONNIE CANNON

    Executive Director of the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center (BHCCRC)

    In our conversation, Bonnie describes the advantages and obstacles associated with growing up on “The Hill” in Southampton, New York. Further, she explains how she and her team at BHCCRC are navigating the educational struggles that minority communities have confronted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    READ              LISTEN

  • We are still here

    DR. GEORGETTE GRIER-KEY

    Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Eastville Community Historical Society

    Georgette reveals the rich narrative of the historically Black Eastville and SANS communities on the East End of Long Island and details her ongoing efforts to protect and preserve local landmarks associated with them.

    READ              LISTEN

  • A Place Held Together by the Work of Women

    DONNAMARIE BARNES

    Curator and Archivist of Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, Co-Director and Chair of the Plain Sight Project

    In our conversation, Donnamarie unpacks Sylvester Manor’s significance as one of the first provisioning plantations on eastern Long Island for the West Indian sugar trade, and recounts her experiences growing up in the SANS community of Ninevah Beach, in Sag Harbor, New York.

    READ              LISTEN

  • For the Good of the Entire East End

    MINERVA PEREZ

    Executive Director of OLA (Organización Latino-Americana) of Eastern Long Island

    Minerva’s interview details the ongoing difficulties that immigrant families face in the East Hampton school district, as well as the constant racial profiling of Latinxs by local police in the Hamptons. 

    READ              LISTEN

  • Our Leader Women, The Backbone of Our People

    KELLY DENNIS

    Attorney specializing in Federal Indian law and Secretary of the Shinnecock Council of Trustees

    In our discussion, Kelly chronicles the his-tory of the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s movement to reclaim stolen land and the thirty-two-year fight for federal recognition. She also speaks about the lack of affordable housing on the East End.

    READ              LISTEN

TOURS & PROGRAMS

PANEL | Reflections from The Land Claim

 

TALK | Tomashi Jackson, Corinne Erni, & Minerva Perez

TOUR | Spanish-Language Exhibition Tour

 

TALK | Tomashi Jackson, Corinne Erni, K Sue Park, & Kelly Dennis

ARTICLES

Directly tied to the images and oral histories shared by the interviewees are the archival materials from written news sources documenting their intergenerational collective memory. These articles preserve the many accounts of sacred land protections, agricultural labor, educational access, transportation, and land rights experienced by local communities of color.

‘Dark days’ at the Cutchogue labor camp

September 26, 2014 | Paul Squire, The Suffolk Times | PDF

Immigrants Share Fears Of National Policies, ICE Raids

Febuary 20, 2017 | Amanda Bernocco, The Southhampton Press | PDF

Suffolk and Nassau Law Enforcement Policy of Detaining Immigrants on ICE Warrants Ruled Illegal

November 14, 2018 | Patrick Young, Esq., Long Island Wins | PDF

Why a Hamptons Highway Is a Battleground Over Native American Rights

May 27, 2019 | Corey Kilgannon, New York Times | PDF

Shinnecock Protest Building On Ancient Burial Grounds

January 14, 2020 | Dan’s Papers | PDF

In Plain Sight, a Long-Buried History of East Hampton’s Enslaved

February 6, 2020 | David E. Rattray, The East Hampton Star | PDF

Black LI Family On ‘Subtle’ Racism: It’s Not Just The N-Word

July 15, 2020 | Lisa Finn, The Patch | PDF

Telling their stories: Research highlights the role of enslaved people on LI

August 21, 2020 | Multiple Contributors, Newsday | PDF

On Long Island, a Beachfront Haven for Black Families

October 1, 2020 | Sandra E. Garcia, New York Times | PDF

Native Americans Have Been Taking on Billionaires in the Hamptons

November 26, 2020 | Walker Bragman & Mark Colangelo, Jacobin Magazine | PDF

SUPREME COURT PETITION

Supreme-Court-doc-Shinnecock-v-NYS

Tomashi Jackson titled the exhibition The Land Claim after a conversation with a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Kelly Dennis, who brought her to understand that the story of the Hamptons is inextricably connected to land appropriation. This Supreme Court Petition, co-written by Dennis, was filed in 2016 is a prime example of contemporary land rights activism taking place on the East End. Scroll and click through the PDF to read the full document.

READING LIST

Additional reading related to the histories and identities represented in Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim were available in the Study Room for visitors to learn more about the topics featured in Jackson’s work.

Bancroft, Dick, and Laura Waterman Wittstock. We Are Still Here: A Photographic History of the American Indian Movement. Minnesota historical Society Press, 2013.

Day, Lynda Rose. Making a Way to Freedom: A History of African Americans on Long Island. Empire State Books, 1997.

Gomez Laura E. Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism. The New Press, 2020.

Hayes, Katherine Howlett. Slavery before Race: Europeans, Africans, and Indians at Long Island’s Sylvester Manor Plantation, 1651-1821. New York University Press, 2013.

Marcus, Grania Bolton. A Forgotten People: Discovering the Black Experience in Suffolk County. Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1988.

Pearse, Joysetta Marsh. Pyrrhus Consor, Born Free. TAAGS, 2014.

Stone, Gaynell. The Shinnecock Indians: a Culture History. Suffolk County Archaeological Association, 1983.

Torres, Mark. Long Island Migrant Labor Camps: Dust for Blood. The History Press, 2021.

Velsor, Kathleen G. The Underground Railroad on Long Island Friends in Freedom. The @History Press, 2013.

Wortis, Helen. A Woman Named Matilda, and Other True Accounts of Old Shelter Island. Shelter Island Historical Society, 1978.

COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS

 

 

 

While exploring the exhibition, visitors were invited to contribute their own family stories and experiences to an Interactive Wall through drawings and written responses.

They became yet another collection of the many histories on the East End.

 

Tomashi Jackson in her studio at The Watermill Center, June 2021. Photo: Copyright Jessica Dalene, courtesy of The Watermill Center.

Tomashi Jackson in her studio at The Watermill Center, June 2021. Photo: Copyright Jessica Dalene, courtesy of The Watermill Center.

ABOUT TOMASHI JACKSON

 

Tomashi Jackson (born 1980, Houston, TX) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, textiles, sculpture, and video to place formal and material investigations in dialogue with recent histories of displacement and disenfranchisement of people of color, resulting in formalist compositions of exuberant color, bold geometries, and intricate layerings of material. She was invited as part of the Parrish Art Museum’s 2021 annual invitation to an artist to consider the entire Museum as a site for works that transcend disciplinary boundaries, encouraging new ways to experience art, architecture, landscape, and community.

Learn more about Tomashi Jackson at Tilton Gallery.

Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim was organized by Corinne Erni, Senior Curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects, with research assistance by Curatorial Fellow Lauren Ruiz.

Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim was made possible thanks to the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; The Bandier Family Foundation; The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Fund for Publications; The Dorothy Lichtenstein ArtsReach Fund, established by Agnes Gund; Connie Tilton; The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family; The Deborah Buck Foundation; Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins; Sandy and Stephen Perlbinder; The Speyer Family Foundation, and Nina Yankowitz.

We are also grateful to Night Gallery, Los Angeles and Tilton Gallery, New York, for their in-kind support.

We are pleased to partner with The Watermill Center in support of Tomashi Jackson’s project and acknowledge their generous partnership through their Inga Maren Otto Fellowship.

Additional support for the Archive was provided by Cara Conklin-Wingfield, Education Director; Brianna Lynn Hernández Baurichter, Curatorial Fellow; Maria Elizabeth, Education Fellow; and Alexandra Paul Zotov, Digital Communications Manager.