Initial research & development for A WAY HOME: Exposed clay veins at Lake Sakakawea North Dakota, 2019 Image Credit: Cannupa Hanska Luger
Craft Research Fund—Artist Fellowship
2020
A WAY HOME initiates the long-term project of reestablishing a clay practice with my ancestors of the Mandan people, whose ceramic traditions were destroyed by colonization. Research will occur in museum collections, on-site in North Dakota, with community, and especially with the clay itself. As a Native contemporary artist and craftsperson of North America, I am motivated to reclaim a more accurate and globally relevant version of 21st century Indigenous culture. Through site-based research and materials testing, I hope to understand the limitations and possibilities of creating with our land. With support from the Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship, I will spend extended periods of time on my ancestral land in North Dakota, where I will hand-dig clay bodies from the earth and test their material nature. A WAY HOME will provide time, space, and experiences with Indigenous people of my heritage to reacquaint ourselves with clay while learning about our lost and stolen clay traditions.
Selected works
MMIWQT Bead Project with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger at Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM 2018. Community engagement resulting in over 1000 clay beads for the large artwork Every One Image Credit: Robert Mesa
MMIWQT Bead Project with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, Red Shawl Society Solidarity Action at Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM, 2018 Image credit: LeRoy Grafe
Initial research & development for A WAY HOME: Exposed clay veins at Lake Sakakawea North Dakota, 2019 Image Credit: Cannupa Hanska Luger
Initial research & development for A WAY HOME: Exposed clay veins at Lake Sakakawea North Dakota, 2019 Image Credit: Cannupa Hanska Luger
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