Looking West: Pop-Up Exhibit
MUSE/IQUE Presents
A Pop-Up Exhibit
"The Galloping Myth of the Cowboy"
MUSE/IQUE Pop-Up Exhibits are designed to take you deeper into the story behind the music, expanding your connection to the sounds you're about to experience on stage. Discover some of the different ways the story of the West, part real history and part pure fantasy, spread into the realm of legend.
WHY DO WE REMAIN FASCINATED AND INSPIRED BY THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN COWBOY?
It’s a mythology that has traveled around the entire world in the form of songs and paintings, poems and novels, comic books and movies. Let’s look at some of the different ways the story of the West, part real history and part pure fantasy, spread into the realm of legend.
When the Ink Sets In
At 16, Joni Mitchell set her first poetry ink on paper with the poem “The Fishbowl.” Part of a school assignment, the poem was an empathic commentary on fame and, in her words, the price one pays for it.
The poem clearly showcased Joni’s ability to share intimate thoughts, which, once read, engrave the reader with deep, personal disclosure of a wide palette of human experiences, feelings, and societal themes that remain ever relevant.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
MUSE/IQUE respectfully acknowledges the ancestral lands of the Chumash, Gabrielino-Tongva, and Kizh Nation peoples who call this region home, and the native communities who have cared for and inhabit these landscapes. MUSE/IQUE recognizes their continued presence, and is grateful to have the opportunity to create live music experiences here.
SINGING ON THE TRAIL
What do you do when you’re lonely and away from home, away from family—with nothing to occupy your time? You sing and hum songs closest to your heart. Cowboys made up songs on the trail or sang ones they’d heard from other cowboys… and an oral tradition was born, with songs about life on the range passing from one horse rider to another and on and on, down the years.
DREAMING OF THE RANGE
Experience the story behind James Taylor’s timeless lullaby “Sweet Baby James,” transformed into an interactive book for dreamers of all ages.
REACH FOR THE SKY
In 1995, a toy cowboy captured the hearts of many around the world. Woody, star of the Toy Story movies (voiced by Tom Hanks), was originally a symbol of Baby Boomer pop culture who was threatened by an astronaut toy—a metaphor for the battle between futurism and old-fashioned tradition. But over the past 30 years, Woody has become his own beloved icon, a representation of leadership and faithful devotion, alongside his cowgirl pal Jessie and loyal steed, Bullseye.
PROJECTING A LEGEND
Hollywood played an enormous role in creating the cowboy myth, in countless westerns starring actors like Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Steve McQueen. But this myth also captured the imagination of filmmakers around the world, notably in the “Spaghetti Westerns” of Italian director Sergio Leone and most recently in the all-Black western, The Harder They Fall, written and directed by Jeymes Samuel.
THE COWBOY BEYOND THE WEST
In 1946, the Cowboy traveled far away from the soil of the American West. Motivated by justice and, like all cowboys, lonesome in his “poor” heart, Lucky Luke won the hearts of children and adults across Europe and sparked a new wave of cowboy imagination and fandom.
The creators of Lucky Luke, Belgian artist Maurice De Bevere (aka Moriss) and Polish-Jewish artist René Goscinny worked on this comic book by mail correspondence (before the convenient communication technologies we have today). Today, we have an iconic character, who continues to pursue his mission, as one of the oldest still-in-print western themed comic books.