In the Future Map

In Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's most recent works—such as In the Future Map —the artist has moved beyond local and ethnic concerns to address the global environ- mental crisis. Part of the twelve-part series Indigenizing the Colonized U.S. Map, the painting features a map of the forty-eight contiguous states, rotated 90 degrees and embellished with paint and collaged elements. Newspaper clippings referencing global warming and Elon Musk’s galactic ambitions sit alongside a reproduction of Eadweard Muybridge’s stop-motion sequence of a buffalo in motion (covering most of North Dakota), poignantly evoking the historical fate of many Native Americans. For Smith, maps are political docu- ments as much as topological ones—testaments to the tyranny of exploitation. Speaking of these recent paintings, she has remarked, “A map is not an empty form for me. . . . It’s about real land— stolen land, polluted land.”