My Jesse James Adventure

Randee Silv
August 2020

Colette Copeland: My Jesse James Adventure, SPIN Gallery, Dallas, Texas
August 14 -September 26, 2020

Commentary & Interview

Otterville, Missouri

Turns out that she actually is related to Jesse James. Colette Copeland has said that, instead of being like other girls who brag about their lineage to the Daughters of the American Revolution, she could trace hers back to one of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West. Her great-great grandmother Sarah Louella Prevette McCracken’s 2nd husband, Billy James, was Jesse James’ first cousin. Not liking the going-ons in the James’ clan, and being without financial support for her and her son, she divorced him in 1887. Copeland’s great grandmother, Mary Beulah McCracken, married Thomas Leslie James, her stepbrother, keeping the blood line going.

Always fascinated by what she’d heard as a child, the Dallas based multi-media visual artist and culture critic/writer Colette Copeland set out to investigate. Covering over 4000 miles, traveling through 9 states, she filmed and documented specific places of interest to re-imagine an interpretation of her ancestral legacy. During this 3-year performative journey, she addressed questions around gun violence, fake news, criminal celebrity stardom and the commodification of this iconic figure. She even touched upon the controversial debate around DNA networks by leaving her own DNA, a lock of hair, at each site.

Hair offering left on the train track, Gallatin, Missouri

Copeland’s My Jessie James Adventure, takes viewers on a historic ride by way of a 22-channel video installation. Dallin B. Peacock composed an original soundtrack. There’s an audio guide with excerpts of newspaper articles of the historical events narrated by actor Ike Duncan.

Determine for yourself if the body exhumed from the St. Joseph, Missouri grave really was that of Jesse Woodson James or if, according to his great grandson, he faked his death in order to live out his life as a law-abiding citizen in Granbury, Texas. Decide if you feel, like many have, a heartfelt sympathy towards the legendary figure despite his many crimes. Or, after listening to the lyrics of the folk song about him that was first recorded in 1919, see if you agree with the portrayal of him as a Robin Hood. Tour the house where Jesse James was shot in the back while hanging a picture on a wall by gang member Robert Ford for the 10 grand reward money. Read the epitaph that his mother had inscribed on his gravestone, “In Loving Memory of my Beloved Son, Murdered by a Traitor and Coward Whose Name is not Worthy to Appear Here.” Link to the newspaper article, originally written by James himself that he tossed to the train engineer during the 1874 Gad Hill Bank Robbery. Copeland likens it to a press release. It starts off with “The most daring robbery on record” and ends with “There is a hell of excitement in this part of the country.”

Did Jesse James Fake His Own Death and Live To Be 106 in Granbury, Texas?
Chicago Tribune, July 13, 1995.

Copeland has archived in-depth research on her blog, chock-full of personal & informative stories, engaging facts, contradictions & twists, published accounts, humorous insights and location shots of where she left her hair offerings. Also, on view are solar plate etchings where the artist has printed Jesse James’ portrait on aged pages from T. J. Stiles book, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. To some she’s added gold leaf, gunpowder and her own blood.

Allies & Enemies, Solar Plate Etching

I had a chance to interview Colette Copeland, where we delved further into her very ambitious project.

RS: Each one of your videos in this exhibition is individually unique. Can you tell us more about some of the techniques & visual strategies that went into creating them?

CC: A visual strategy that has become part of my signature editing style is the compositing and layering of images and video. This technique was used extensively in my work Reflections on the Way to the Gallows (2010-2013), where I filmed at the sites where women had been publicly executed in the U.S.. Because I was uncovering hidden histories and making the absent present, this technique was particularly effective in collapsing time, creating a sort of a palimpsest that bears traces of the past, as well as the present. I continued to use this strategy in My Jesse James Adventure as a way to reference history and current events. I also used some subtle special effects and filters to alter the viewer’s visual plane, challenging the notion of history as truth/evidence. Like the gallows project, this provides a conduit for cultural memory, questioning how we engage in acts of remembrance.

Gallatin, Missouri

RS:  Your use of layering does create a sense of mystery & play on time.  I read on your blog about your  experience shopping for gun scopes at Cabela’s. It sounded pretty surreal. What was that like?

CC: Although I live in Texas, I am not a gun owner. I know next to nothing about guns or gun scopes. I shot a gun twice in my life, both for performative art works. If you’ve never been to Cabela’s, it’s a retail theme park for outdoor adventures–all things fishing and hunting. The place creeps me out. After unsuccessfully trying to find a suitable gun scope online for my exhibition, I realized I had to bite the bullet literally and visit the store. The first thing I noticed was that the huge plate glass windows were boarded up. That initially struck me as strange, since the protests over George Floyd’s death were primarily located in Dallas and not in the northern suburbs. The 2nd thing I noticed was that none of the employees and very few of the customers were wearing masks. The majority of the employees were white males. And there was a VERY long line–at least 50 people–all white males waiting to buy guns. If you have a Texas Driver’s License, you can buy a gun and carry it in your car. Firearms do not need to be registered and there is no waiting period or background check. In other words, anyone can buy and own a gun.

RS: Definitely crazy stuff. What we do for art. But at least you got the gun scopes. Throughout this project, you’ve highlighted how “Jesse James” the symbol has been commodified and how fake news has been used to glamorize & change the narrative. Would you like to expand on this?

CC: We tend to think that “fake news” is a contemporary phenomenon. However, it’s been going on since the beginning of time. During my research, I kept coming across newspaper articles about the James Gang exploits where the language was very flowery, hyperbolic and definitely biased. Author T. J. Stiles writes extensively about this in his biography about Jesse James. One chapter is called the Chivalry of Crime. Jesse James had close ties with news journalist John Newman Edwards who published James’ letters to the editor, as well as depicted the James brothers as heroes from another era. In one article, he equates them to Knights of the Roundtable under King Arthur. Here’s a quote from an 1874 article in the Lexington Caucasian Newspaper entitled, Missouri’s Gay Bandits. “Their fierce hand-to-hand encounters… their long and reckless scouts and forays, and their riotous jollity… all combined to form a chapter without a parallel in the annals of America.”

Fake News: Missouri’s Gay Bandits and The Truth at Last in Lexington Caucasian News,  September/October 1874.

RS:  Manipulating information.  Amazing how many people fall for it, then & now. You wrote this very powerful statement: “In the wake of the continued horrific gun violence and murders of black bodies by law enforcement, the work takes on a new context. Visitors to the gallery will view the videos through gun scopes, asking them to question and confront their own perceptions about guns and gun control.” How do you think the audience will respond to it?

Liberty, Missouri

CC: I will digress briefly to give some background context. As an ally for #blm, I’ve been reading about racism and my role in this insidious system that continues to oppress people of color. Reading White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo and currently working through Layla F. Saad’s Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor has changed my views about not only the definition of racism, but how I actively benefit in this system because of my skin color, affording me unearned white privilege and power. Saad states that “Your(my)desire to be seen as good can actually prevent you(me)from doing good, because if you(I)do not see yourself(myself)as part of the problem, you(I)cannot be part of the solution. ” She also says that “You(I)cannot dismantle what you(I)cannot see. You(I)cannot challenge what you (I)do not understand. ” In order for me to affect change, I need to change the lens with which I view the world. Saad also speaks a lot about what it means to be a good ancestor in terms of planting seeds for future generations. In thinking about my ability or inability to facilitate change in my roles as educator, artist, human and ancestor, I am trying to focus on this lifetime journey of learning, listening and doing the hard work on myself to be a better ally.

If you asked me three years ago if My Jesse James Adventure was about racism, I would have answered no. Today, it would be naïve and irresponsible for me to deny that racism is a component of the project. The work is about researching and discovering one’s ancestry, as well as delving into personal and collective history about a specific notorious individual. Jesse James fought for the confederacy and outlawed in the years directly following the Civil War. This period of time was full of strife, fear and violence for black Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was actively lynching and killing black Americans. There are newspaper references to James’ gang wearing Klan hoods when robbing a train near Adair, Iowa.

Back to your question about how I think the audience will react to the gun scope and viewing the sites of the James’ Gang robberies and looting. I can’t predict behavior, but my hope is that visitors will contemplate history through a different lens. Rather than passively viewing, they have to actively handle and focus the gun’s scope, placing it through holes in the wall in order to see the videos. I hope folks will question what it means to look at a subject through cross hairs. I hope that through rupturing the viewing experience, folks will question their ideas about guns, gun control and also their place in this fraught history. Esteemed author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi said that an artist’s role is to bear witness. My project is about bearing witness and confronting our past and how it shapes our future.

Jesse James’ letter to Governor McClurg professing his innocence
Liberty Tribune, June 24, 1870

Copeland will be hosting small groups for informal discussions, tours and talks.
To schedule or for more information you can contact her at colettemedia@aol.com

Listen to the complete series of  the audio files →

Watch all videos in the exhibition →

Read the archival blog →

And for more information on Colette Copeland’s My Jesse James Adventure →