Critical Archive of the Visual and Related Arts
Unknown Artists: Plains Village
10th-century, 11th-century, 12th-century, 13th-century, 14th-century, 15th-century, 16th-century
Billings, MT: Pictograph Cave State Park
50%
Pictograph Cave. 1st-18th century (with Unknown Artists (Crow), Unknown Artists (Plains Archaic), and Unknown Artists (Woodland))
It's difficult if not impossible to appraise this site for its actual pictographs, as these are mostly, sadly, faded beyond visibility. (Something like 80% of the images that were here in the thirties, when the cave was first excavated, are now gone completely.) What can be judged — which is a crucial aspect of the actual form of any in situ artwork like this — is the site itself, which both frames and is framed by the pictures. The cave cuts into the side of a light tan cliff that sits above a dry field (opposite which are more cliffs), but it's tucked away slightly due to the shape of the hills and is quite shrouded by vegetation (which may or may not have been present throughout the artistic life of the site). You therefore enter into the image's field from a distinct, demarcated outside, which nevertheless remains open and potentially visible at your back. The elevation of the caves is insubstantial but aesthetically significant: situated just above an expanse that's below them, the pictures invite broad speculation of the world beyond, yet refuse completely to be of this world. The site therefore makes the pictographs seem to be both inside and outside of reality; such liminality is something like a prerequisite for the aesthetic success of any image. However, we're left to conjecture about (and certainly not to experience) any particular formal relationships between this artwork and where it's located, as the images themselves are destroyed. (TFS, 2025)