In Self-Determined at CCA Santa Fe, thirteen Native artists address the environment, mythology, traditions, technology, and more.
Self-Determined: A Contemporary Survey of Native and Indigenous Artists
August 18–November 27, 2022
opening: Thursday, August 18, 5-7 pm MT
Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe
The Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe opens Self-Determined: A Contemporary Survey of Native and Indigenous Artists, its first exhibition co-curated by executive director Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota) and Kiersten Fellrath on Thursday, August 18, 5-7 pm.
In the largest exhibition of contemporary Native art hosted by CCA, thirteen Native and Indigenous artists engage environmental themes, explore mythologies, rework traditions, and utilize technology as a tool of preservation in both formal and conceptional investigations through film, installation, photography, sound, beadwork, and studio arts.
The exhibition draws its inherently political title from a Nixon-era policy, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (Public Law 93-638), wherein the United States government gave federally recognized tribes the ability to make decisions for themselves about cultural renewal, reclamation, governance, economic development, and education—the first governmental policy not based in assimilation or genocide.
“Self-determination” is reinterpreted as an act of reclamation and revolution—a concept transformed, embodied, and explored in myriad ways by artists living in a post-self-determination era.
“It has been only fifty years since tribes were given the right to make decisions for themselves, to control their own communities in ways that celebrate their unique voices in the cultural landscape of America. In the land of the free, freedom of expression for Native and Indigenous people is only decades old,” says Means.
Six of the more than two-dozen pieces featured in Self-Determined are newly created works for the exhibition, which also includes a performance on Indigenous People’s Day, October 10, by Demian DinéYazhi’ (Diné, born to the clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá [Zuni Clan Water’s Edge] and Tódích’íí’nii [Bitter Water]). The exhibition will be on view through November 27, 2022, and is in conjunction with Indigenous Celebration 2022, a platform initiative supporting Indigenous artists, art, and culture. Additionally, the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe will keep the gallery space activated with programs and partnerships with the Institute of American Indian Art, which will showcase selections from their film archive that include works by James Luna and historical footage relating to the Self-Determination policy.
Self-Determined includes work from Jordan Ann Craig (Northern Cheyenne), Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock), Demian DinéYazhi’ (Diné, born to the clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá [Zuni Clan Water’s Edge] and Tódích’íí’nii [Bitter Water]), Carly Feddersen (Okanogan, Arrow Lakes, German, English), RYAN! Feddersen (Okanogan, Arrow Lakes, German, English), Anna Hoover (Norwegian/Unangax̂), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Chaz John (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Mississippi Band Choctaw, European), Jeff Kahm (Plains Cree), Ian Kuali’i (Kanaka Maoli/Native Hawaiian – Shis Inday/Mescalero Apache), Erica Lord (Tanana Athabascan, Inupiaq, Finnish, Swedish, English, and Japanese), Hoka Skenandore (Oneida, Oglala Lakota, Luiseño, Chicano), and Dyani White Hawk (Sičangu Lakota).
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