Experience Raven Chacon’s immersive tribute to Indigenous, First Nations, and Mestiza women at the Harwood Museum of Art’s opening celebration on Friday, February 23, 6:30 pm, and on view through July 7, 2024, in Taos.
Raven Chacon: Three Songs
opening: Friday, February 23, 6:30-8:30 pm
February 24–July 7, 2024
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos
The Harwood Museum of Art presents Raven Chacon: Three Songs in Taos, New Mexico. The exhibition brings together three of Chacon’s projects that pay tribute to Indigenous women through sound, video, and visual work.
In the series For Zitkála-Šá (2018), Chacon created musical arrangements dedicated to different contemporary Indigenous, First Nation, and Mestiza women working in music performance, composition, or sound art. Four For Zitkála-Šá performances are scheduled during this exhibition (listed below), each featuring First Nations or Mestiza musicians. The video installation Three Songs (2021) features Indigenous women singing as they reoccupy sites of historic massacres, displacement, or relocation of tribal people. The final work, Silent Choir (2016-17), is a field recording Chacon made while taking part in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests that captures the silent protest of 600 water protectors facing police and security forces. These works presented in unison resound suppressed histories and present-day stories of Native resistance in the face of systemic power.
For Zitkála-Šá performances:
February 24: Kona Mirabal + Masa Rain Mirabal
April 6: Autumn Chacon
May 4: Laura Ortman
June 7: Marisa DeMarco
Chacon is a Diné (Navajo) composer, performer, and installation artist born in Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation, and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a solo artist, Chacon has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, the Kennedy Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022 and the prestigious MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2023.
Join the museum for a public opening celebration on Friday, February 23, 6:30–8:30 pm. Members and Director’s Circle members are invited to preview the exhibition early on Friday, February 23, 4:30-6:30 pm. Tickets for performances of For Zitkála-Šá are available through the Harwood’s event calendar.
Raven Chacon: Three Songs is made possible by the generous support of Montaner Charitable Trust, UNM Academic Technologies, Lina and Jim Beckley in honor of Gus Foster and Alexandra Benjamin, Gus Foster, Dianne Frost, Sheree Livney and Steve Hanks, Laura Medley, Janet Holmberg and Shawn Berman, Dora and Carl Dillistone, Richard B. Siegel Foundation, and Liz Neely. Additional support is provided by the Larry Bell Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art and the Tally Richards Fund for Exhibitions.
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