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The main motive behind my work is humor and using humor as a tool to get to bigger underlying issues. I’m originally from Montana and I grew up on the Crow Indian reservation in south central Montana. I’m half Crow Indian and half Irish. I grew up immersed in Crow culture but had a dual perspective. Most of my art explores this experience of being from two worlds along with some of the issues that occur within that territory. “The Four Seasons” series was my investigation into the world of natural history museums.I moved to Los Angeles in 2004 from Montana right after I graduated from Montana State University in Bozeman. I was struck by the lack of natural environment in the city of Los Angeles and I was also lonely for home. |
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The main motive behind my work is humor and using humor as a tool to get to bigger underlying issues. I’m originally from Montana and I grew up on the Crow Indian reservation in south central Montana. I’m half Crow Indian and half Irish. I grew up immersed in Crow culture but had a dual perspective. Most of my art explores this experience of being from two worlds along with some of the issues that occur within that territory. “The Four Seasons” series was my investigation into the world of natural history museums.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2004 from Montana right after I graduated from Montana State University in Bozeman. I was struck by the lack of natural environment in the city of Los Angeles and I was also lonely for home. I decided to go searching for something familiar, so I took a trip to the Los Angeles Natural History museum to look at the Native American section. I saw one of my Crow ancestor’s moccasins on display in a glass case. Seeing his moccasin in this encased state made the object appear very odd and misplaced. I wanted to analyze this feeling further, but couldn’t quite piece it together. I strolled by the dioramas and found in them the same cold quality as the display of my ancestor’s moccasin. I decided to construct my own version of a diorama and to convey this format of display makes me feel. I fabricated four elaborate sets, one for each season, complete with plastic inflatable woodland creatures and 70s photo mural mountain ranges. I also photographed myself in the middle of the curious natural history-like dioramas.
My most recent work is an installation piece titled Balóowappaache, the Crow word for television, which literally translates to “moving papers.” I made a structure that mimics a contemporary Crow sweat lodge on the outside but, when you enter the space, it turns into my grandmother’s living room. I’m still playing with the idea of natural history museum setups. Inside the lodge there are two chairs that sit in front of a television and TV stand. On the walls of the lodge I pinned pictures of my family almost like wallpaper. I burned sage and cedar so that it smelled like an actual sweat lodge and there is heat that causes viewers to perspire when they sit in the space for a while. I wanted to make it really cozy for the viewer so that they would feel at ease when they entered to watch the film.
The film starts with a movie titled Soldier Blue that was shot in 1970 and directed by Ralph Nelson. I used the last scene in the film depicting the San Creek Massacre that happened in Colorado in 1864 against the Cheyenne Indians. The scene is very gruesome and uncomfortable to watch. After the massacre, I cut to my footage from a trip I took on my reservation during one of my school breaks. The footage ranges from beautiful landscapes and horseback riding to trashy government housing and local powwow events. I wanted to show people what has happened to Indian people in the past and how native people are living today.
