Visual Nation Summer 2021

We are proud to present the Summer 2021 Visual Nation art exhibition! The work in this show was created by Haskell students, Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors, from all over NDN country.

Each student was asked to research and respond to a theme they felt passionate about. Some students practiced artistic rituals of healing and remembrance, while others wanted to document important people and objects. Still others just wanted to collage. They persevered through this unprecedented and confusing time, which makes this work even more remarkable.

This is just a sample of artwork HINU students created this semester. For more, please visit our Instagram @hinuarts.

Cover image: “They Speak” by Yvonne C. Trujillo (Taos Pueblo), micaceous clay, acrylic, ash.

Mia Chamberlin Cherokee In-Between Worlds Photography and performance Inspired by Cree artist Meryl McMaster’s In-Between Worlds (2013) and by the ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Movement, I took to the urban streets of California. Like McMaster, I clothed myself in symbolic materials. The red line mapped across my body represents the Red River of the North where many bodies of missing sisters have been found. The white paint and blue clothes also have significance, as does the cracks and unevenness in the background: they suggest violence, transformation, and a state of being inbetween. As I lay on the streets of Westwood, California, which was once Tongva land, I felt the presence of being foreign to the locals.

Native American issues need to be broadcasted to the world and not hidden. We need more people to help fight with us and understand the struggles we go through. Commonly, people around the world think of Native Americans as mythical creatures, or that all the “real” Indians are gone. Due to this ignorance, people do not know the challenges we have faced and continue to face today.

Jamie Stallings Yupik, Holikachuk Athabascan, and Deg Hit'an Athabascan Influencers Mixed Media Faces wield a powerful influence over all our lives. I decided to collect some of my favorite faces into one space. Drawing faces helps us see them better, and requires knowledge about the human anatomy, like where precisely to place the eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and hairline. I found that the more "ugly" a character is, like Penguin from Batman, the more intriguing and fun it is to draw. Ugly faces give the artist more room to fail, whereas angelic faces like a child's is much more challenging. Beautiful faces are easier to “mess up” and are often construed as offensive if you do mess them up.

Yvonne C. Trujillo Taos Pueblo 2021 The Quiet Micaceous clay, acrylic orange paint, mini hand stamp, red cloth This is a memorial dedicated to the native children who never returned home from the boarding schools. It is also meant for the missing Indigenous women and girls everywhere who are yet to be found. There are 966 hands around the vessel representing the 215 children recovered from Kamlooth and the 751 children recovered from Marieval. More have since been found. The paint was originally orange, the popular color used to honor the missing children, but to my surprise, after cooking the pot, all the hands turned white.

Tylen Garcia Meskwaki 2021 Untitled Pen & Crayon on notebook paper This drawing allowed me to get out of my comfort zone. I don’t necessarily like being that main focus or being in the spotlight, whether it be in person, pictures or videos. So I thought I would try it. I also liked playing with abstraction.

Arlene Spottedwolf Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Diné Death Surrounded by Life Mixed media on paper Collaging is something we learn at an early age, but also something that can be developed with practice. The images and materials you use, and the ideas you attribute to those materials changes along with your emotions over time. They can be confusing, random, silly, or at times, depressing and scary. While creating this collage drawing, I changed. I learned that even though you may have limited supplies, something beautiful can be created as long as you have the patience for it. This project also allowed me to express the state of my mental health this summer: feeling dead inside while everything around me appeared beautiful and flourishing.

Shawntai Allen Navajo 2021 Mask Remembrance Disposable protective masks, acrylic paint Each face mask represents a struggle the Navajo Nation went through during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many obstacles that took place during the year 2020 made it very hard for people on the reservations, and we still don’t have answers to a lot of the questions about the virus. I wanted to collage the masks into an interesting composition. I was influenced by Osage artist Norman Aker's new prints that illustrate the complexity and confusion of time during the pandemic.

Aysa Benally Navajo 2021 Stereotypes Acrylic Paint Stereotypes are easy to understand, but people may ask, Why a hamster? I wanted to paint something cute and funny while also addressing a serious Indigenous American issue.

The tomahawk and feathered headdress stereotypes are so ridiculous that they may as well belong to a cartoon hamster.

My hamster represents the comedy and sadness in the native stereotypes. He is a cute and funny hamster that makes people smile. In a world where Indigenous identity is tainted with dark stereotypes, the Hamster can comfort those struggling with racist stereotypes.

Kaitlyn Foraker

Chickasaw

"Tulli Okhuta" Digital A homage/remix to the popular manga and recently animated series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

This is my personal depiction of Jolyne Cujoh, who is the protagonist for the sixth part of the series, Stone Ocean. "Tulli Okhuta" means 'stone' and 'ocean' respectively in the Chickasaw language. I was heavily inspired by the neon artworks we studied this semester as shown with the neon detailing of the iron jail cell bars in the background. Moreover, the colors for the neon additions reflect my perception of Jolyne as being part of the LGBTQ+ community; I wanted to communicate that through the rainbow neon palette.

Daryl Hooper Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Cherokee & Creek 2021 Still Here Canvas, Acrylic, Foil, Paper Both of my great-great grandmothers were survivors of residential schools. I made this painting with the dark orange sky to represent the sadness and remembrance of the indigenous children who lost their lives while attending residential schools in the United States. The small hands and black figures in the sky also represent the innocent lives of the children taken. In the far-right corner is a remixed American flag, made from stenciled foil, staked into the ground. The small figure painted black on the horizon is a residential school. In white paint, Still Here goes with the cut-out cartoon drawing of a young Indigenous woman in her traditional clothes with a mask on.

Jacierra Liston Seminole Love Thy Body Graphite Collages can be created out of anything, any time. They can be simply yet chaotic, meaning everything or nothing at all. “Love Thy Body” is a drawing of a collage that explores how difficult it is for a woman to love her body after she’s been either blinded from viewing herself for who she is or muted for what she’s gone through, swallowing her tears.

Kelli Huapapi Yankton Sioux Tribe TAKE A PICTURE Performance and photo-collage We are idolized.

We are America’s art, craft, & symbol.

We are categorized.

We do not like the truth.

We have a place for RACE. I was influenced by two mentors: James Luna and Edgar Heap-Of-Birds. My work is a nod to their pieces, Take a picture with a real Indian (Luna), and Do Not Dance For Pay (Heap-Of-Birds).

I brought their ideas into a Native gathering space: Owakpamni Wacipi, Greenwood, SD. Natives participated and reviewed their very own identity, stereotype, and questioned who is a “real” Indian.

There were thirty participants, but the entire Wacipi space reacted with the art through facial expressions, body language, and private dialogues amongst themselves.

I feel that Luna and Heap-Of-Birds mean to “disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.” Participants were ecstatic to take part in photo shoots, while non-participants gazed in with naïve illusions and assumptions. My daughter Lilly (16) and I purposefully provoked “discomfort” to draw out Native beliefs & attitudes toward me as a souvenir and a useable object.

Jharde Toadlena Navajo Nation Powerful Native Woman Rainbow Brush Pens on paper I was inspired by Fritz Scholder's painting “Cherokee” from 1995. I wanted to remix it by using markers and the image of a Navajo woman.

Thomas McNulty Comanche Car Pen on paper I created a pattern with phantom edges by tearing up pictures of two classic cars and mixing them together.