View Edgar Heap of Birds Pitzer Campus Installation here
Pitzer College’s Art+Environment program kicked off its inaugural year with a public art installation by Edgar Heap of Birds, the program’s first artist-in-residence and an internationally-recognized contemporary artist. The installation, Native Hosts, will be on display for two years in various locations across Pitzer’s campus.
Native Hosts honors the Tongva, indigenous people whose ancestral homelands lie in the Los Angeles area. Created with local Tongva elders, Native Hosts features signs displaying the names of traditional villages and sacred sites. Pitzer Associate Professor of Art History Bill Anthes describes the artwork as, “a point of conversation for members of our campus community and visitors to the campus about our local ‘hosts’ in Southern California.”
“A goal of the art+environment program is to think expansively about how we interact with non-human nature, and how art can help us imagine other possible relationships between humans and the environment,” said Anthes, the director of art+environment. “Edgar’s work with the indigenous Tongva, who have known these lands for generations and for whom geography is deeply spiritual, is a fitting beginning for our program.”
A member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Heap of Birds is a professor of Native American studies at the University of Oklahoma. His artwork has appeared in numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Australia.
What I take away from this piece is how simple it can be to subvert a place. Sometimes it can feel like subverting a narrative can only be done through a grand gesture, but this work exemplifies that one can achieve this through the simple act of printing a word backwards on a sign.
ReplyDeleteYes it is true we as artists can exercise freedom of speech in very poignant and creative ways - even using ubiquitous things like signage. One thing to remember is that this work is always the result of negotiation for partners, funding, and permissions to post the signs. This is the unseen part of this work that is very important for it to remain and reach as many people as possible.
DeleteI think this is a meaningful project. The environment issues getting serious as time past so Edgar's project is powerful. His art is not something about obvious, like love, desire, fame, sex, and etc. I genuinely think this art is for everyone.
ReplyDeleteYes. Good points. And it behaves differently in the public sphere. For some it is a reaffirmation, for some a reminder, and for others it is a new idea and new information. Regardless, it helps generate important dialogue and speaks to the complexity of land use, history, and public spaces.
DeleteWhat this art installation showed was how culture and environment are connected. Having the installation on a campus will allow those who walk by gain context to the history of the land that the campus is on. Many times we go about our lives and do not acknowledge the environment that is around us and the history it holds. I found it interesting how Edgar incorporated his native language and chose to have certain words written backwards to express how backwards the world can be.
ReplyDeleteYes. His language was there first and so it is only logical to use it to discuss the name of the place. Good points.
DeleteI've been a hug proponent of the environment and trying to use art to engage and combine with the environment. Using history as way to connect with the environment reminds of the plaques by the law school that detail the indigenous group that lived in Gainesville before colonialism.
ReplyDeleteMany campuses around the country are beginning to officially acknowledge the lands they occupy and the indigenous people that reside or resided there before the arrival of Europeans. There is also a great reading by Edgar Heap of Birds called "Sharp Rocks" that details how words and mass media can be used like arrow heads as a defense in contemporary culture. He writes it much more eloquently but that is the gist.
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