Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination Since 1969 / Erika Verzutti: New Moons – Announcements – e-flux

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Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination Since 1969 / Erika Verzutti: New Moons – Announcements – e-flux

The Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College will present two major exhibitions, to open on June 24:

Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination Since 1969 
June 24–November 26, 2023
Curated by Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), Forge Project’s Executive Director and Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies, CCS Bard.

Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination Since 1969 is the first large-scale exhibition of its kind to center performance and theater as an origin point for the development of contemporary art by Native American, First Nations, Inuit, and Alaska Native artists, beginning with the role that Native artists have played in the self-determination era, sparked by the Occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Nations in 1969. Featuring over 100 works by artists representing a range of perspectives and practices, including Rebecca Belmore (Member of the Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe)), Dana Claxton (Lakota), Theo Jean Cuthand (Plains Cree, Scottish, Irish), Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin, Czech and Dutch), Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill (Métis), Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota), James Luna (Payómkawichum, Ipai, and Mexican), Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee), Spiderwoman Theater, Dyani White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota), among many others, as well as performances and activations by Rebecca Belmore, Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂), Arielle Twist (two-spirit Nehiyaw (Cree)) with Jeffrey Gibson (The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians/Cherokee), Maria Hupfield (Anishnaabek, Wasauksing First Nation/Canada), Emily Johnson (Yup’ik)/Catalyst, Kite (Oglala Sioux Tribe), and Eric-Paul Riege (Diné).

Indian Theater will be accompanied by a major publication, Native Visual Sovereignty: A Reader on Art and Performance, edited by Candice Hopkins and co-produced with Forge Project and charting the evolution of Indigenous North American performance in contemporary art over the past 60 years. Available fall 2023, Native Visual Sovereignty gathers extensive scholarship on the development Native North American performance, art, and visual sovereignty, including newly commissioned essays, poetry, and oral history interviews, alongside reprints of critical texts by leading Indigenous scholars and artists.

A full list of artists is available online here.

Erika Verzutti: New Moons
June 24–October 15, 2023
Curated by Lauren Cornell, Director of the Graduate Program and Chief Curator, CCS Bard.

New Moons—the first survey exhibition of Erika Verzutti (b. 1971, São Paulo) in the United States—provides an expansive view of the Brazilian artist’s bold and influential practice, encompassing over 70 wall works and sculptures made over the past fifteen years. The artist integrates a multitude of references from art and architectural history alongside references to plant, human, and animal life as well as everyday and spiritual objects. The result is both singular new forms and chains of associations. Sometimes, her sculptures replicate through multiple versions, or what have been called “families.”

Verzutti’s genealogies intersect with motifs such as eggs and orbs, the outlines of body parts, and traces of the work’s making—evidenced in marks from tools and the artist’s own fingerprints. The pervasive presence of Verzutti’s hands and tools reminds viewers that the artist is not just taking—not just absorbing her references into her creations. Rather, she is emphasizing a relation of transference, projection, and personification.

Moons recur throughout Verzutti’s work as symbols of renewal and the multiple phases and cycles that one person or entity can take. They also form a frame for the exhibition. For the artist, moons are part of a cosmos, alongside stars and asteroids, that signal a planetary perspective. This pulled-back viewpoint blurs the tensions and divisions on Earth, forming the basis for an artistic practice that seeks—in its strangeness and discontinuity—to break down prevailing orders, hierarchies, and divisions of knowledge classification.

Visitor information
Exhibition summer hours are Wednesday through Monday, 12–6pm. All CCS Bard exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public – advance reservations are not required but can be made at ccs.bard.edu.

For a seat on the free roundtrip-chartered bus from New York City available for the opening on June 24 please call T +1 845 758 7593 or email =(c=c.charCodeAt(0)+13)?c:c-26);});return false”>alaracuente [​at​] bard.edu. Reservations are required for the bus.

National Indigenous Art Fair unveils festival line-up

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National Indigenous Art Fair unveils festival line-up

Sydney: get ready for two uniquely immersive days of Indigenous art, design, food, performances and culture at the National Indigenous Art Fair, 1 – 2 July 2023, at the Overseas Passenger Terminal on Gadigal Land in The Rocks.

The National Indigenous Art Fair (NIAF) is back for its fourth season with a new festival program celebrating the diverse range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and culture from across Australia and highlighting excellence in Indigenous performance.

“The art fair and festival program are designed to welcome, educate and engage visitors. It’s an occasion to meet remote community artists and hear their stories. It’s also a time to see some incredible performances and immerse yourself in the oldest continuous living cultures in the world. We make sure there’s something there for everyone to enjoy,” said Peter Cooley, CEO of First Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation, organisers of the art fair.

The NIAF provides collectors and visitors with a rare opportunity to buy ethical, authentic art directly from remote and regional artists. Each year, alongside 50 stalls representing remote Indigenous Art Centres and Blak Markets stallholders, there is a vibrant festival program which includes an Indigenous smoking ceremony, First Nations live music and dance performances, a massive and colourful communal weaving project, art workshops, panel discussions, bush tucker cooking experiences and talks, and children’s storytelling, craft and dance workshops.

Early arrivals on both mornings will be able to participate in Indigenous smoking ceremonies and join a procession into the National Indigenous Art Fair, watching as every stall is blessed and cleansed for the day ahead.

Over the two days, visitors will enjoy singing performances byBarayagal,Radical Son andBow and Arrow. This year’s dancers are from theDjiriba Waagura Aboriginal Dance Group and Mui Mui Bumer Gedlam Dance Group from the Eastern Islands of the Torres Strait.

The Barayagal choir is an intercultural collective of 21 singers that gathers to sing songs of culture and stories at cultural events. Directed by Gamilaraay songwriter Nardi Simpson, they “sing to the place they are in and the places they all come from.”

“We’re excited to have Barayagal coming to our art fair to create the most beautiful singing and harmony in an atmospheric setting,” said Peter Cooley.

This year, the NIAF will also present a special 20-minute performance from Juluwarlu Aboriginal Corporation, interpreting one of the five Creation stories through movement and music from the desert of Western Australia.

Radical Son is a soul, hip hop, rapper and spoken word artist from NSW. His music is inspired and guided by his Indigenous heritage from the Kamilaroi nation of Australia and the South Pacific island of Tonga. Bow and Arrow are a contemporary First Nations electro-soul trio with Wirajurdi, Ngunawal and Gamilaraay heritage. Their music is inspired by stories from The Dreaming.

The cultural dance group Djiriba Waagura (the name means Two Crows), from the NSW South Coast, is known for providing captivating and energetic dance performances and cultural experiences that inspire connectedness. Mui Mui Bumer Gedlam Dance Group (which translates as deep sounds from home) performs traditional and contemporary Torres Strait Island dances.

For people keen on craft, there’s a chance to work alongside remote community and local Indigenous weavers on a communal weaving project, woven over the two days of the art fair. There’s also the opportunity to join a intimate paid weaving workshop with celebrated master fibre artist and painter, Regina Pilawuk Wilson of the Peppimenarti community in Northern Territory.

Larry Brandy, a proud Wirajurdi man, storyteller and author, will lead the children’s storytelling sessions over the weekend. In his energetic and interactive performances, children become kangaroos, emus and hunters as they learn how Indigenous people hunted and found food in earlier times.

Place Management NSW will also be presenting a children’s workshop on the Sunday at Cadmans Cottage Forecourt. There will be interactive dance and cultural adornment workshops for children by Jannawi Dance Clan. Meanwhile, the team from IndigiGrow will run children’s planting workshops where they mix their own soil, pot a native plant and take it home after learning how to care for it.

The 2023 NIAF will also feature cooking demonstrations of some flavourful dishes using Australian bush foods and native spices. Food trucks will deliver a delicious atmosphere, with fresh flavours from the BBQ.

“The art fair is always a great day out for people of all ages. It’s also a wonderful way to begin celebrating NAIDOC Week which is all about Indigenous culture and achievement,” said Peter Cooley.

The fourth annual art fair is presented by Sydney-based First Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation, in partnership with the Port Authority of NSW, Destination NSW, University of Technology Sydney, Place Management NSW, the City of Sydney, Indigenous Business Australia, Nelson Meers Foundation, Mannifera Foundation, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macquarie Group, the federal government’s Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support Program and all the dynamic Aboriginal businesses who are participating in 2023.

The National Indigenous Art Fair will be held at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, The Rocks, from 10.00am to 5.00pm on Saturday, 1 July and Sunday, 2 July 2023.

All for a gold coin donation to support remote artists attending the event. The Overseas Passenger Terminal is easily accessible by public transport and on foot from Circular Quay.

  • Event: The National Indigenous Art Fair
  • Date: Saturday 1 July – Sunday 2 July 2023
  • Time: 10.00am – 5.00pm
  • Location: Overseas Passenger Terminal, 130 Argyle St, The Rocks, Sydney
  • Entry: Entry by gold coin donation
  • Website: niaf.com.au/

/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.

First Voices: Montana tribes working to keep elders’ stories alive

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First Voices: Montana tribes working to keep elders’ stories alive

A project that keeps the ancestral stories passed down through Native American tribes alive and gives young people a chance to express themselves through digital performance and filmmaking will be expanding to the Crow reservation next fall.

First Voices works with students at reservation high schools and tribal colleges. The students work with tribal elders and storytellers to produce the videos.

“I came to know that a lot of the elders were dying, and it made me very sad because if the elders are dying the stories are dying. What are the young people holding onto?” says Preeti Vasudevan, founder of the project.

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Preeti Vasudevan

That was the impetus for forming First Voices—to keep the stories passed on through oral traditions to tribal elders and knowledge keepers alive in their first language.

“It’s harder to find than you might imagine. Many are second-language speakers. Very few are first-language speakers,” says Vasudevan.

The students do much more than just record interviews. They bring the stories alive though performance art.

“For the students who are involved with creating a digital story, they get this deep dive with all these professional artists into different artistic disciplines, and they get to find their way to tell the story. We don’t come to them and say, ‘here is what you are going to tell.’ And then also the finished stories become an educational resource,” says Mary Serbe, who is also involved with the project and hosted a recent fundraiser at Kirk’s Grocery in Billings.

Shandiim Kaline is a member of the Northern Cheyenne who worked on the project during her senior year at Lame Deer High School.

“It was a way for native kids or teenagers to get their art out there to be creative. Before ‘Reservation Dogs’ before any of that, natives didn’t really have a voice. And if we did, most media was insensitive about their presentations. To me, it was a good way to have the outlet with our art.”

Henry Real Bird, a noted Crow poet and storyteller, spoke at the event. He talked about the importance of the project as it moves to the Crow reservation.

“To be able to tell the stories and the rhythms that are in the stories and to be able to pass them on like old times,” Real Bird says.

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Henry Real Bird

Those involved with the project say it serves several purposes—one of course is keeping these tribal stories from the past alive, another is the experience the students involve gain for their futures.

‘It builds leadership, team building, confidence—it heals trauma—and also helps build skill sets like I can make a film and do choreography,” says Vasudevan.

For more information about the First Voices project,click here.

Business accelerator boosts Montana’s Native American entrepreneurs

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Business accelerator boosts Montana’s Native American entrepreneurs

MISSOULA — An organization dedicated to promoting Native creativity is launching a six-week online business accelerator program for Native American artists and entrepreneurs from the Salish and Kootenai tribes in Montana.

Creatives Indigenous, organized by the indigenous magazine Native Max, aims to equip participants with essential skills to elevate their businesses to new heights.

“We initiated this program two years ago in the American West, and we are thrilled to extend our support to Montana’s Salish and Kootenai tribes’ artists and entrepreneurs,” said program manager Brenna Ortiz. “Native American groups encounter numerous hurdles and setbacks when it comes to advancing their businesses, and our aim is to provide the necessary support they need to succeed.”
The curriculum includes in-depth exploration and the practical application of topics such as business opportunity analysis, business model development, leadership, team building, and managing cash flow.

It also looks to empower Native American groups by addressing the unique challenges they face in scaling their businesses, according to the organizers.

This year, the program has attracted 26 businesses from Montana. Leading the program is Kelly Holmes, a Native American woman with extensive experience in the media and fashion business.

Holmes said the program’s distinctive feature lies in its strong foundation rooted in Indigenous values.

“I am excited to collaborate with our partners on this program,” Holmes explained. “Our objective is to empower Native creative entrepreneurs, providing them with the confidence, knowledge, and resources necessary to generate revenue, achieve financial success, and ultimately create more employment opportunities within their communities.”

The program will culminate on July 22 with a fair at the SKC campus where participants will showcase their businesses and products. The event also will serve as a platform for entrepreneurs to network, gain exposure and celebrate their achievements.

“What makes our programs unique is how we incorporate and integrate Indigenous knowledge and values into the curriculum,” said Holmes.

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