UxI 2020: Urban-Indigenous Futurism
The Virtual Gallery
EnTrance
Lisa Suguitan Melnick & Solitaire Miguel
Melnick is a 3rd Gen Ilokana/Cebuana
a portal to...Presence. As contribution to UxI's Futurism theme, the concept here is that a sustainable future co-depends on our ability to reclaim Presence. format:see or imagine entering the container through a portal. Above you will see trees blowing in wind, the force not visible yet powerful enough to sway thickly rooted branches at will. Beneath your feet you will see sand, cushions, even a section of fresh grass. feel free to choose a place to settle.
Available are singing bowls, and small instruments.
‘Rise’ reflects upon the historical legacy of the Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and the fear of indigenous people in New England and later throughout the United States. Fear, in this instance, comes from the acknowledgment of our continued presence, not as an extinct people, but as sovereign nations who have witnessed and survived four hundred years of colonization.
Playing with recognizable zombie film and TV show iconography, ‘Rise’ highlights parallels between the apocalyptic rising undead and popular misinformation of indigenous people as a vanished race.
Jizz Jazz
Cipriano Ortega
My father's ancestry is from Spain and New Mexico, My mother's is Aztec and Apache. I feel my blood battle with itself as I am a product of genocide.
I have dealt with chronic health issues that have effected all aspects of my life. This song is about me dealing with perspiration drugs and its quick fix mentality.
I strive to create works of art the probe the mind and make my audience question what we perceive as the normative. As a sociological artist, my work deconstructs the worlds around me and observes it under a nihilistic perspective. As an Apache, I also deal with colonialism and how I combat that as an artist and as a human.
My work is nourished by many indigenous and black cultures, from which I feel inspired and I also recognize myself. The format can be digital or manual, most of the time it is a mixture of both. within the manual, collage, graffiti, watercolor and vector illustration. I like to experiment with different techniques. The last thing I experimented with was bichromated rubber.
I used to think i was born from an airplane at JFK airport. This piece is an evolving dance ritual & gallery installation overcoming this myth, remembering humanness, feminine power, preparing for birth, then motherhood as an international adoptee of indigenous lineage. Womb Seed was first performed while seven months pregnant in July 2019 and again in November 2019 three months after the birth of my son.
When indigenous babies are stolen from impoverished families in 3rd world countries to wealthy white first world families, the future of indigenous people are in the hands of those who are most responsible for the current harm to Great Mother's lands and waters. As an indigenous international adopted person from Colombia, I have created the evolving performance series and gallery installation titled
"Womb Seed" in order to repair, make ritual and celebrate the Mother, female power of life creation.
How can rupture in family line be repaired by the recovery of truth of one's past? How can an adopted person cultivate their own supreme power and authority over their own body, their past and their future by birthing the next generation? When thinking about Indigeneity and Futurity, the most powerful technology has always been the miracle of life creation. The shiniest technology is within our babies and raising them with conscious minds, preserving our cultures and our people's values as respectful protectors of this Earth.
Materials:
5 bellycasts painted with acrylic paints decorated with ribbon, fake flowers, seaweed, sand, spray paint.
various natural fabrics and weavings
1 chair, 1 bed (if space has one or i can bring a massage table or substitute it with a chair)
36 Kuna Indian Mola bedspread
nylon hair braid harness
12 photo prints by Robbie Sweeny
Glass bowl of water and roses
video projector & laptop with slideshow on replay
fishing line and "bloodlines" made of synthetic cotton dyed with acrylic paints
This is a film about the living situation we have created for ourselves in Los Angeles before we moved to the Bay Area. It is intended to be engaging in a way that friends share stories over a campfire in and around many distractions. It asks the viewer to listen in attentively not only to what is being said but also into what is being constructed by the way the sounds and images are being presented to tell our own stories to counter narratives of empire. I am hoping that this piece can resurrect the spirit of ancestors and awaken the collective possibility of what it means to be resilient to the divisiveness of the constructs we live in. I wanted to share this deeply personal piece as a way to encourage pure expression that helps us create the mode of agency we need to look into a future where we can all exist together.