2019
12 Pendleton beach towels, 12 custom memorial flag cases.
78 x 78 inches
The Only Certain Way is a collection of works that speak to the forced assimilation of Indigenous Peoples to Christianity. The 16th century Spanish explorer and conqueror Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca kept a journal of his experiences as the first European to step foot in the Southwest. Therein he is quoted saying, in reference to religious conversion and assimilation, Indians "must be won by kindness, the only certain way.” Kindness was thus weaponized as a tool against Natives in order to shift their beliefs.
The Only Certain Way uncovers the lack of visibility of Native American culture, identity and lived experience, due to both the absence of proper representation in mainstream culture and the undermining of Native belief systems by way of mistrust and deceit veiled in sympathy and salvation. The complex and undeniable relationship between Native history and United States history exposes the ways tribal identity has been dismantled, grouped and homogenized to conceal diverse collections of individuals and communities. The works in the exhibition questions the religious belief systems still so intricately woven into past generations—the results of being stripped of spiritual practice and tradition. Forced colonization and assimilation to Christian-based religions led to a century of whitewashing culture and customs and removing access to ancestors and their omnipresent spirits.
I am interested in identifying the line between the ideas and religious notions that have been forced upon Natives and the resulting adaptations of non-Native customs. Assimilation creates a crisis of identity and strips bare inherent beliefs, creating a base upon with to build a new system of faith. This disruption of self, brought on by conversion, is then only remedied by the promises of “truth” made by Christianity. The sculptures, photographs, prints and videos in the exhibition visualize the historical divide between acceptance and resistance, speaking to what is forced upon as opposed to what is created as a response.
*Other performance prints in the series (not shown) include:
Indian Holding a Weapon (Love)
Indian Holding a Weapon (Promise)
Indian Holding a Weapon (Apology)
Indian Holding a Weapon (Medicine)
Indian Holding a Weapon (DNA)
2019
Photograph
27 x 40 inches
2019
Photograph
27 x 40 inches
2019
24 Pendleton bath towels, 24 custom memorial flag cases.
78 x 104 Inches
2019
24 Pendleton beach towels, 24 custom memorial flag cases.
78 x 104 Inches
2019
Performance print
22 x 30 inches
2019
Performance print
22 x 30 inches
2019
Performance print
22 x 30 inches
2019
Performance print
22 x 30 inches
2019
Performance print
22 x 30 inches
2019
Performance print
22 x 30 inches
2019
Performance print
22 x 30 inches
2019
Photograph
27 x 40 inches
2019
Video Installation (3:58 minutes)
2019
Video Installation (3:58 minutes)
Video Installation (3:58 minutes)
Prints recording a contemporary Indian, myself, carrying out many of the same routines and rituals as the majority of Americans in the 21st century (taking a shower, watching porn…etc.) and commenting on aspects of the universality of contemporary social identity in the United States.
Indian Checking Facebook
2012
Indian Drinking a Mexican Coke
2012
Indian Listening to the Beatles on iPod
2012
Indian Pumping Gas
2012
Indian Scratching a Lottery Ticket
2012
Indian Taking a Shower
2012
Indian Watching Porn
2012
Indian Standing In This Exact Spot Looking At Contemporary Native American Art II (performance still)
2012
Indian Performance Prints (installed)
2012
This work incorporates narratives of perception, misinformed stereotypes, false imagery, representation and identity, and the commodification of Native American Indian culture.
Blood Quantum Physics, questions the current use of blood quantum policies (CDIB) that determine Native heritage by the ratio of “Indian” to “Non-Indian” blood. As a member of the Muscogee (Creek) tribe of Oklahoma, I am diagnosed with a 17/32 degree of Indian blood. The ladders are a metaphor for our DNA and more specifically as a representation of the quantity of Indian blood I possess. The noose, representing the blood quantum policies, questions the ramifications of their usage in determining who can and cannot be Indian. The policy creates an impasse, gradually decreasing ratios by generation and inevitably suffocating lineage.
Portraits of an Indians uses the big game hunters’ approach by capturing, killing and presenting false Indian imagery and the commodification of culture and by rendering it defeated, dead and unusable.
Nocturnal Myths, Lies & Other Stories, a collection of theatrical tableau photographs, confronts and contextualizes the contemporary Native American in real time through a series of unresolved situations. The scenes are captured from a voyeuristic standpoint, allowing the viewer to use his/her own empirical reasoning for the resolution of a scene.
The diptych The Royal King Joseph I vs. The Noble Chief Joseph calls upon the viewers’ subjectivity and preconceived notions based on the same information presented differently in order to misconstrue perception. The diptych also relies on the use of language and explores how it has been used historically to place or classicize people, such as referring to a group as a tribe rather than a nation, or brave vs. heroic, or in this case specifically royal vs. noble. The term “versus” suggests that one or the other must be accurate when in fact both depictions are considered to be false imagery. The viewer is left to contemplate which one is preferable based on those preconceived notions and how visual culture functions.
Blood Quantum Physics
2012
Blood Quantum Physics (detail)
2012
Blood Quantum Physics
2012
Portraits of an Indians
2012
Portraits of an Indians II
2012
Portraits of an Indians III
2012
Portraits of an Indians IV
2012
Portraits of an Indians V
2012
Portraits of an Indians Trophy Wall
2012
B.efore I.ndian A.ctivation
2011
Fancy Dancer
2012
Indian Awaiting Reparations
2011
Red Horn the Redeemer
2012
The Royal King Joseph I VS. The Noble Chief Joseph (installed)
2012
The Royal King Joseph I VS. The Noble Chief Joseph (detail)
2012
The Royal King Joseph I VS. The Noble Chief Joseph (detail)
2012
An online campaign challenging the expected social identity of a Native American traversing everyday life. #ThisIsNotAnIndian
Indian as a Phoenix Rising or Some Such Shit 2016
Indian of Perpetual Reparations 2016
Indian Ordering a Pizza 2017
Indian thinking, "Fuck This Shit!" 2016
Indian Drinking Strawberry-Lemonade 2015
Indian Standing Next To a Soda Machine 2014
Indian Stretching 2015
Indian Swiping Left 2015
Indian Tying His Shoe 2014
“I” is for Indian: A Children’s Activity Book for Adults, is an adult activity and coloring book about Native Americans. Using humor and irony, it informs or re-informs participants about cultural appropriation, mis-representation, social biases and commercialization of culture. With a familiar, child-like approach, the activity book exploits our formative years and the way we learn as children where, ironically, much of the stereotypical imagery and social biases are first learned. For instance, a color-by-number of a stereotypical Indian illustration will reveal an entirely blackened page when the activity is performed. This blackening out completely voids the misinformed, stereotypical imagery and renders it non-visible, non-existent, and un-useable.
2017
Serigraph
22 x 30 inches
2017
Serigraph
22 x 30 inches
2017
Serigraph
22 x 30 inches
"I" is For Indian (detail)
This work confronts what is societally considered Native American Indian and what is not. The work challenges the places within society’s mind where Indians are allowed and expected to exist, as well as the visual notion of what the Indian should look like in those places.
The works presented as Natural History Museum Artifacts are handmade silver gelatin photographs of cheaply made costume jewelry typically sold in Halloween shops, which are used to dress up as Indians. The titles of the works reflect the actual names, dates and places of origin given by the manufacturers.
The photographs are displayed as artifacts in custom made museum-like cases. They are presented “curly” or “un-flattened” to convey a sense of objectification of the precious artifact, which is in fact the photographic print and not the living people or living culture referenced in the costume jewelry.
The locked museum-like cases act as a metaphor for locking in an idealized vision of Native American people and their many different cultures, safe from change, progression, advancement, growth and the future.
Other works in the series are staged tableau photographs placing Indians in unexpected places and scenarios.
Item: Indian Breast-Plate Tribe: Funny Fashion Origin/Region: Made in China
2014
Item: Native Indian Choker Tribe: Western F.a.s.h.i.o.n Origin/Region: Unknown
2014
Item: Indian Headdress Tribe: Charades Costumes Origin/Region: Made in China
2014
Item: Western Headdress Tribe: CostumesUSA Origin/Region: Made in China
2014
The Long Road
2012
Fancy Dancer II
2014
Keepin' Up With the Joneses
2014
Act a Fool
2014
James the Gentle Gentrifier
2014
A grid of self-portraits capturing the subtle shifts in demeanor which define much of the historical photographic identity of Native Americans as an unflinching (uncivilized) and proud (savage) people to be objectified.
Stoic to Heroic
2014
2011
Serigraph
15 x 22 inches
2017
Serigraph
38 x 50 inches