Abstract
In the summer following the 2016 - 2017 water protector movement on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, three Native American women presented their artwork on the occasion of the Venice Biennale. Titled “Wah.shka,” Marcella Ernest, Shan Goshorn and Keli Mashburn’s artistic statements directly addressed the sacredness of water, the role of women and threats to our tribal sovereignty. A common response to these efforts is to question the level of impact on an international audience who are assumed to be the primary focus of exhibition aims. This paper, as relayed by a co-curator of the exhibition, argues that audience response is but one of the many legitimizing platforms available at this most central international arts festival. While public influence is a mainstay of similar activist and politicized artistic interventions (our exhibition is largely unsanctioned), the power of presence meaningfully achieves alternative aims of selfhood aligned with Indigenous protocols. Rather than resulting in a cultural flattening, these forays into the globalized art world engenders perspectives not readily available “at home.” Native belonging in urban globalized contexts is not at odds with a simultaneous claim to aboriginal territories, languages, and ceremony.
Presenters
Nancy Marie MithloProfessor, Gender Studies and the American Indian Studies Interdepartmental Program, Univertsity of California Los Angeles, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
"Arts Festivals", " Arts and Diversity", " Arts as Activism", " Art and Globalization"
Digital Media
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