I was taught, and do believe,
that the personal is political.
Because of who I am, and what I'm interested in doing
in terms of Indigenous representation,
I want long-term evidence
that Native people exist, are present, and contribute.
One of things that's always been really important
to me is that, for artists who are coming
from anywhere outside of the mainstream,
that we don't feel the pressure to change our work
and our cultural aesthetics to fit the art world.
My embrace of color, my embrace of pattern, materials,
Queer histories, Native histories,
identifying as a Native artist
is something that I've wanted
to carry with me this entire time.
So now I think, it's sort of like well
what are the new stories to write with this information?
I mean it's interesting having moved
upstate seven years ago.
The Hudson Valley has just decentralized the way
that I think about art making, to look towards other parts
of New York, to look towards other parts of the country,
as places to be engaged in as artists.
Pretty much everything is fabricated here in the studio.
That kind of notion of a studio hand being consistent
is something that has become a really key part of the work.
The very beginning of the garments is really my working
with materials from a Powwow context.
I view Powwow as a modern invention
in the face of colonialism.
In many Indigenous cultures, a garment is made
for somebody specifically, it's very different
from fashion in the sense that it's not transferable.
That idea of how they're suspended from the ceiling
comes from the idea that there's a garment
which is looking over you, that's representative
of protection, it's representative of a familial,
generational, cultural history.
And it really impressed me that people would believe
that this garment could protect them.
And the subject isn't really about
whether that's true or not.
The subject, for me,
is about could I potentially have that belief?
Like what is it about our contemporary society
that doesn't allow me to believe that the making
of an object can bring protection?
One of the other originating inspirations,
for the garments, was armor.
And it was to think about how difference also pushes back.
I would say this is probably gonna weigh about,
at this point, probably about 12 pounds per arm.
In order to move in this garment,
you really have to like kind of muster up energy
to lift your arms.
There's the idea that when it becomes difficult
somehow that represents defeat, and I shifted my mind
to thinking it's like, oh, that actually represents progress
or movement in the face of a challenge.
So if you feel the resistance,
then that means that you're actually moving
in like the right direction.
The flag started, I would say, considering my relationship
to an American identity.
Let's do white, white,
and then a little bit of the star pattern coming in there.
It is not about countering the American flag,
it's sort of like a personal interpretation
of my vision of America.
And it's based on the identities
that I don't see being celebrated at a national level.
And so, having identified or having been identified
as a minority, as a peripheral culture,
as not having been acknowledged in many parts
of the United States,
I also wanted to extend that
to other people who I see in similar situations
by acknowledging them in this flag.
A flag is this interesting thing to me,
because they really historically are used to claim.
I returned to that thinking about this space
of when people walk in, and when they're waiting
to purchase their tickets, and so like what do you want
to say in that kind of singularly framed statement?
And at this moment, this is what I wanted to talk about.