Works by Curtis Talwst Santiago, and Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds installed

Place, fragmentation, historical events, imagined scenes, personal narratives, and state-sanctioned violence inform the work of Curtis Talwst Santiago (a former apprentice of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, also represented in the exhibition). Since 2008, Santiago has built dioramas in what he refers to as "reclaimed" jewelry boxes. He launched his Infinity Series by carrying such box- es in his pockets as a sort of portable artwork to show people he met. Since 2010, they have been displayed in gallery and museum shows. -In the current exhibition, Santiago presents a massive collection of the boxes, broaching the encyclopedic, in a room custom-built within the space. The imagery contained within the boxes ranges from portraits to historical happenings, landscapes, references to art history, scenes from daily life, and events from different parts of the world and points in time. Frida's Entry into Iguala, 2015, refers to the ongoing protests against the forced disappearance of forty-three Mexican students in 2014 at the hands of a confederation of local police, military personnel, and drug cartels, and relates the tragedy to a James Ensor painting. In The Execution of Michael Brown, 2014, the artist restages the killing of an unarmed teenager by police in Ferguson, Missouri, that same year. Instructive and illustrative, his boxes both protect and conceal the moments inside, which, frozen in place, are also historicized as dioramas. While miniaturization should make troubling scenes more manageable, the scale does nothing to diminish the impact of war, racism, violence, or sexism; in fact, they become more troubling through their proposed intimacy. Other works in the series are more tender, such Zulu Mother and Child, 2017, and portraits or art-historical scenes that become undetermined and untethered monuments. The culture the works produce is different from the civic context that historical monuments traditionally engage; they instead evoke proximity and privacy, as well as the limits.
Text written by Curator Ruba Katrib for the exhibition catalog.

As winter turned to spring, we visited Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds at the studio of Michael McCabe, master printer at Fourth Dimension, with whom the artist was beginning a new monoprint series. This was fresh on the heels of the horrific gun violence unleashed at Parkland High School in Florida that killed seventeen and wounded seventeen more. It was the response of Parkland students that finally broke through language thick with political moralism. ("Pray for the victims" was a common response of politicians and lawmakers, including the sitting president). On that visit, one print in particular stood out. The following words appeared on a crimson background: "Stop Active Shooter Cadet Autie Custer." They bear repeating. These are words steeped in violence, words rescued from the amnesia of history. In response to the mainstream coverage of the now epidemic number of mass shootings in the US, many were pointing out that these assaults don't come out of nowhere. Less than a hundred years ago, the US military orchestrated the slaughter of hundreds of Native American children, women, and men in massacres across the country. These incidents recurred from north to south; some, like the killings at Wounded Knee, are familiar; others, like the Washita Massacre near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma, less so. In Heap of Bird's prints, George Custer is framed not as a hero but as an "active shooter." For the many Cheyenne and their allies who died November 26, 1868, this is who he was. The words on other prints have a rhythm: "Navajo Don't You Know Love You So" or "Can of Coors Hey Ya Aye Yo." These song lyrics, from bands like The Police and various Native groups, are installed alongside words drawn from historical encounters. Others seek to reframe these encounters in the present: "Indian Still Target Obama Bin Laden Geronimo." Bias is embedded in language that takes aim at other targets.
Text written by Curator Candice Hopkins for the exhibition catalog.