Spirit!

What Makes It Great? / Featured / June 15, 2021

By Elin Spring

Side effects are not always a bad thing. After a vaccination, they signal the awakening of a desired immune response. Similarly, the current storm of responses to centuries of racial inequities may be an equally positive sign, one of broad societal acknowledgment and the first step toward accountability. Movements in support of #BlackLivesMatter, LGBTQ+ rights, #MeToo, and Asian-Americans have not only voiced cultural outrage but also spawned an avalanche of stirring artistic responses. “Spirit: Focus on Indigenous Art, Artists, and Issues,” curated by contributing artist Donna Garcia, assembles the work of ten photographers who express the trauma, resistance, traditions and spirit of Indigenous culture in North America. On view at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA through July 9th, 2021, there will be a Zoom Panel Discussion with exhibiting artists on Thursday, June 24th at 7:00pm EDT.

“Autoimmune Response I” from the series AIR by Will Wilson, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Spirit” unequivocally aims at advocacy. From conceptual work by Will Wilson in AIR, Shelley Niro in The Shirt, and Jeremy Dennis in Nothing Happened Here to photojournalism and documentary projects by Tonita Cervantes’ Standing Rock, Kiliii Yuyan’s Masks of Grief and Joy, and Pat Kane’s Here is Where We Shall Stay, to the fine art imagery of duo Kali Spitzer & Bubzee in Braiding Wounds, Donna Garcia in Indian Land For Sale and Meryl McMaster’s As Immense As The Sky, the mixture of approaches is both a strength and weakness of the exhibit. What it may lack in cohesion, however, it balances with its lively diversity of voices.

“Muskogee” 2018, from the series Indian Land For Sale by Donna Garcia, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Sacred” 2018, from the series Indian Land For Sale by Donna Garcia, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Donna Garcia’s stunning B&W photographs in “Indian Land For Sale” imagine the lost narratives of Indians who were forcibly driven from their lands by President Andrew Jackson’s “Indian Removal Act” of 1830. An unabashed land grab, Indian populations were marched westward from Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi over the course of eight years while the U.S. government auctioned off their lands and thousands lost their lives on what became known as the “Trail of Tears.” When Garcia’s searches failed to uncover documentation of this period, she embarked on recreating the Native narrative herself. In elegant frames, Garcia’s singular subjects, striking textural detail, selective focus and use of motion to symbolize Indian flight and annihilation generate powerful, nuanced odes to Native Americans’ ancestors.

“Walk” 2018, from the series Indian Land For Sale by Donna Garcia, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“A dog walks near the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Łutsël K’é, Northwest Territories. The church was built near the present day settlement in 1925 and moved to its current location at the tip of the peninsula – one of the tallest and most recognizable structures in the community.” from the series Here Is Where We Shall Stay by Pat Kane, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Melaw Nakehk’o is a moosehide tanner, an artist, a filmmaker and mother. “Through the process of reclaiming my cultural knowledge, I saw how the many teachings woven into our land practices could positively impact our first nation communities. Our Dene protocols and laws govern our reciprocal relationship with the land and animals. Moosehide tanning is a foundational Indigenous art form, it was our homes, our transportation, our clothes and in hard times our sustenance. It is the canvas of our visual cultural identity. The smoke smell triggers memories of grandmothers, the sound of scraping reminds us of our aunties working together, the beadwork and style of our moccasins represent our nations. Hide tanning is a revolutionary act of resistance. We occupy our traditional land, we are adhering to our traditional teachings and honoring our relationship with the animals that sustain us. Moosehide Tanning is Land Back”, from the series Here is Where We Shall Stay by Pat Kane, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Pat Kane’s documentary color photographs in “Here Is Where We Shall Stay” are lyrical and resonant. His airy, contemplative compositions emanate a sense of continuity while his introspective human subjects possess a calm dignity. Kane’s breathtaking images of the land and people of Canada’s Northwest Territories are as moving as they are understated and speak eloquently of resiliency.

“Louis Zoe, an elder from Gamètì, Northwest Territories, watches the sun set over Kokètì (Contwoyto Lake), the calving grounds and migration route for the Bathurst caribou herd. In the 1980’s and ’90’s, the herd had a population of nearly half a million caribou but has declined to just under 10,000 today. Scientists say the decline may be from a combination of several factors: climate change, mining, increase in predators and over hunting. Zoe and several researchers from nearby communities, use a mix of traditional knowledge and western science to “do as hunters do” and study their migration patterns, the health of the land and water, signs of new predators and resource development – all in real time, on the ground and alongside the herd.” from the series Here Is Where We Shall Stay by Pat Kane, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“A basketball court sits empty in the village of Gambell, Alaska. For many youth, the recent suicide of a friend who loved the game has kept them away from the court.” 2018, from the series Masks of Grief and Joy by Kiliii Yuyan, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“KO and her best friend, DS, a few steps from school. KO is considered a problem student and often acts out with great drama in class. Gambell’s school counselor believes behavioral problems with students of DO’s age are expressions of dealing with the emotional unavailability of parents that survived Indian boarding schools. April 11 2018, Gambell, AK.” 2018, from the series Masks of Grief and Joy by Kiliii Yuyan, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Award-winning National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan explores Indigenous communities in the Polar regions, taking a participatory turn in his series “Masks of Grief and Joy,” located on Alaska’s Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. Following the agonies of colonization by whaling fleets in the 1800’s and the forced separation of families by deporting children to abusive boarding schools in the 1900’s, the suicide rate in Alaska soared. Yuyan created a youth suicide prevention program, utilizing art therapy through the Indigenous tradition of mask-making. Each student made masks of both joy and grief, then Yuyan photographed them in locations that recalled those feelings for them. His affecting portraits confirm the healing power of creative expression, as his young subjects radiate resiliency and hope.

“KO embraces DS at the Gambell School. At 13, they have not personally known any suicide victims, though their families are deeply affected– a hopeful sign of change in the community.” 2018, from the series Masks of Grief and Joy by Kiliii Yuyan, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Edge of a Moment” by Meryl McMaster courtesy of the artist and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

“Anima” from the series In-Between Worlds by Meryl McMaster, courtesy of the artist and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

Ottowa-based photographer Meryl McMaster mines her bi-cultural heritage of Plains Cree and British/Dutch to create magical self-portraits within remote Indigenous landscapes. Donning fantastical costumes that court or mimic wildlife driven to near-extinction, McMaster enacts the inherent contradictions of her identity by drawing attention to the consequences of colonization and settlement. Her dramatic scenarios conflate an awareness of both linear and cyclical time, invoking Native generations as she poses at the sites of her ancestral stories, a landscape now under threat from our careless stewardship of the natural world.

“What Will I Say To The Sky And The Earth II” from the series As Immense As The Sky by Meryl McMaster, courtesy of the artist and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

Ordinarily, McMaster’s fantasies are amplified by her large, immersive prints. Apparently all of her pictures have sold out and she had no actual prints left for this exhibit, so her entire series is displayed on a small computer monitor in one corner of the gallery. In fact, five of the ten photographers have their images displayed on monitors, four of them exclusively so. For me, one of the joys of seeing art in person is the opportunity to engage with a physical piece of work, and especially after the restrictive reign of Covid, I admit I am disappointed not to view printed photographs by all the artists. That said, there are still plenty of reasons to visit this show in person.

“Lula Red Cloud” from the series Standing Rock: Water Protectors by Tonita Cervantes, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Nothing Happened Here #3” 2017, by Jeremy Dennis, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Garcia’s mission for the “Spirit” exhibition is activism. She expressly designed it “to educate the public, through lens-based art, regarding the true history of indigenous people and recruit advocates for indigenous issues everywhere, but with a specific focus on the US and Canada, where native lands and people аre still coming under attack everyday.” “Spirit” represents an understandable cultural backlash, rather like a robust side effect signaling a positive outcome.

“Braiding Wounds” by Kali Spritzer and Bubzee, courtesy of the artists and Griffin Museum of Photography.

For more information about this exhibit and/or to register for the free Zoom panel discussion with exhibiting artists on June 24^th, 2021 at 7:00 pm EDT, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/spirit-focus-on-indigenous-art-artists-and-issues/