Davidson College issued the following announcement on Feb. 4.
It plays prominently in an evolving art exhibit that acknowledges the Native Americans oppressed by land theft, violence and forced assimilation. And it will symbolize the college community’s efforts to forge an ongoing relationship with Native communities in the region.
Nicholas Galanin, a Tlingit and Unangax̂ artist from Alaska, is behind the year-long, outdoor installation, Unshadowed Land, which started with a dig in the fall. It follows his recent Dreaming in English exhibit at the Van Every/Smith Galleries.
Galanin’s work aims to expose how colonialism resulted in the misappropriation of and profiting from Indigenous art and culture. He works in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, photography, video, textiles and music.
His Dreaming in English exhibit ranges from photographs of empty display cases from the Museum of Natural History in New York (representing stolen artwork); to a room filled with cots like the ones Indigenous children slept in at boarding schools they were forced to attend as part of a government effort to “kill the Indian” in them.
The Unshadowed Land exhibit began in November as Davidson volunteers tilled soil in the shape and scale of the Andrew Jackson monument on Lafyette Square in Washington, D.C. It resides outside the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center. This month, volunteers will return to prepare the soil for a spring planting, says gallery director and curator Lia Newman.
Original source can be found here.
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