Trail of Tears

Borrowing the format of parking signs, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds confronts the memory of the Trail of Tears. The work references the US government’s 1830 Indian Removal Act, which sanctioned the forcible removal of 100,000 Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole peoples from their ancestral lands, resulting in devastating loss of human life and heritage. The artist describes walking as an “instrument of torture perpetuated upon many tribal peoples as the United States inflicted brutal removal policies.” Using the candid language of the common signpost, the artist asks the viewer to stop and consider the past’s continued influence on the present.