Home Lands at The Autry

I've been meaning to see this exhibit at The Autry since the spring. Now that it's about to close, I finally made it to Home Lands: How Women Made the West. It's an interesting exhibit focused on three areas: northern New Mexico, near the Rocky Mountains, and Puget Sound, and how women turned "western spaces into home spaces by adapting it."

What I really liked about this exhibit was the wonderfully creative staging and backgrounds for the story and the artifacts. Here you can see the corn husk covered wall behind the grinding stone and storage vessels. The display base reminded me of geological strata that you see there. Also in this section, there was a message written in yellow and blue corn kernels (who else has been to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota?), and a burlap wall pinched and tweaked to replicate mountains or fault lines.

In the Puget Sound area, salmon was a main focus. One wall was covered with circular mirrors representing salmon skin, behind a fishing photo and framed marketing ephemera.

For the Rocky Mountains, a station wagon was sliced in half, with a flyer under the windshield wiper that explained how cars aimed at women allowed families to spread out to the suburbs.

You only have until August 22 to see for yourself!

Click here to go to The Autry's Web site.