Wes Modes

Wes' primary art research project is A Secret History of American River People, a project to build a collection of personal stories of people who live and work on the river over a series of epic river voyages from the deck of a recreated 1940s-era shantyboat. The project hopes to encourage an awareness of the issues facing current river communities, the long history of people who have lived on and adjacent to the river, and an understanding of river ecology. (http://peoplesriverhistory.us)

Using material from fieldwork on a growing list of other American rivers, Secret History is a dialogic and participatory art piece, firmly rooted in a People’s History tradition, that reexamine the issues currently and historically faced by people living or working on the river. Particular attention is given to the invisible stories of women, native people, working people, and people of color, to create a multi-perspective and multi-path take on historical narrative, exploring the importance of a public commons and to challenge dominant cultural assumptions about the role in society of people living at the fringe.

Outcomes of the project are expected to include a research archive, short and feature documentaries, and a series of books. These archives telling otherwise untold personal narratives are a significant cultural artifact with wide-reaching significance to people living and searching for solutions to shared challenges in river communities elsewhere on the continent.