Native America

In the Apsáalooke (Crow) language, the word Áakiwilaxpaake (People of the Earth) describes Indigenous people living in North America, pointing to a time before colonial borders were established. In this exhibition, curated by the Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star, artists from throughout what is now called North America—representing various Native nations and affiliations—offer diverse visions, building on histories of image-making. Some of the artists presented in Native America: In Translation are propelled by what the historian Philip J. Deloria describes as “Indigenous indignation”—a demand to reckon with eviction from ancestral lands—while others translate varied inflections of gender and language, as well as the impacts of climate change, into inventive performance-based imagery or investigations into personal and public archives. “The ultimate form of decolonization is through how Native languages form a view of the world,” Red Star notes. “These artists provide sharp perceptions, rooted in their own cultures.” 

 Wendy Red Star (born 1981, Billings, Montana) is a Portland, Oregon–based artist raised on the Apsáalooke reservation. Her work is informed both by her Native American cultural heritage and by her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to recast her research, offering new and unexpected perspectives that are inquisitive, witty, and unsettling. Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, and an MFA in sculpture from the University of California, Los Angeles. Red Star’s first major monograph, Delegation, is copublished by Aperture and Documentary Arts. 

 This exhibition is adapted from “Native America,” the Fall 2020 issue of Aperture magazine, guest edited by Wendy Red Star. It is organized by Aperture and made possible, in part, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts.