Zhegagoynak, the place now often known as Chicagoland, is an important heart for Indigenous artwork, previous and current. This winter, the Block Museum of Artwork at Northwestern College is celebrating the area’s Indigenous creativity with a serious exhibition, Woven Being: Artwork for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland, now on view till July 13.
Via the collaboration of 4 artists with connections to Zhegagoynak — Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Want Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) — Woven Being explores confluences that proceed to form Indigenous artistic practices within the area and past.
Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), “Breath of Life…The First Song” (2023), classic “Calumet” cans, elm bark, elk disguise, and poplar and oak dowels, with harvested cherry, Osage orange, sassafras and twisted wooden, copper BBs, pebbles, and paint (assortment of Jason Wesaw, picture courtesy the artist)
“How does one’s understanding of Chicago change when seen through Indigenous perspectives?” asks Jordan Poorman Cocker (Kiowa), Terra Basis visitor co-curator of the present. “This exhibition helps shift views about the place Chicagoans call home by revealing Indigenous stories that have been erased or omitted from mainstream narratives.”
Greater than 5 years within the planning, Woven Being is the results of an ongoing dialogue amongst Carlson, Church, Lloyd, Wesaw, exhibition curators, and workers on the Block Museum of Artwork. It presents greater than 80 artworks by 33 artists energetic from the mid-Twentieth century to at this time and contains a number of newly commissioned works.
Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Want Band of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), “Dragonflies and Turtle” (2024), birch bark (assortment of Kelly Church, picture courtesy the artist)
This artist-centered strategy resulted in an exhibition the place artists formed the context for his or her work amid works by different artists of their selecting. Collectively, the items spotlight the shared aesthetics, supplies, values, communities, and kinship of those interconnected artists. Themes of land and waterways, kinship with crops and animals, and Indigenous ideas of time likewise join the present’s artworks and tales.
Along with the 4 collaborators, artists whose work is on view embody Josef Albers, Rick Bartow, Frank Large Bear, Roy Boney, Avis Charley, Woodrow Wilson Crumbo, Nancy Fisher Cyrette, Jim Denomie, Jeffrey Gibson, Teri Greeves, Denise Lajimodiere, Mark LaRoque, Courtney M. Leonard, Agnes Martin, Wanesia Misquadace, George Morrison, Barnett Newman, Daphne Odjig, Virgil Ortiz, Chris Pappan, Cherish Parrish, John Pigeon, Jason Quigno, Monica Rickert-Bolter, Sharon Skolnick, Skye Tafoya, Lisa Telford, Joe Yazzie, and Debra Yepa-Pappan.
To study extra, go to blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe), “Birchbark/Wiigwaas” (2020), {photograph} on cloth, two-sided, 50 x 84 inches, (assortment of the artist, picture courtesy the artist)
Woven Being is a part of the Terra Basis’s citywide Artwork Design Chicago. Lead assist is generously offered by the Terra Basis for American Artwork. Main assist is offered by the Andy Warhol Basis for the Visible Arts. The challenge is supported partly by the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts, The Joyce Basis, and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.