#a nation is a massacre
A NATION IS A MASSACRE
Demian DinéYazhi’ & R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment
Portland Biennial 2019
DISJECTA | Portland, OR
24 August - 03 Nov 2019.
Curated by Yaelle S. Amir, Elisheba Johnson, & Ashley Stull Meyers.
”Death and grieving for Indigenous Peoples is like a war zone—a space unlike any other far removed from the ‘stars and stripes.’ We are expected to die without news headlines or revolution, and in this way we expect nothing; we accept death. It’s a slow death, but with the same urgency as endangerment or extinction or invasion, or an asteroid the size of england or complete and inevitable economic collapse. Even in our survival and resilience, we come to the table ready to protect the most sacred of human rights.”
—Demian DinéYazhi’
With its political aphorisms, all-caps fonts resembling newspaper headlines, and graphic images, A Nation is a Massacre resembles activist agitprop first popularized by Soviet Russia in the early 20th century and later adopted and refashioned by artists in the wheat-pasting tradition, like Jenny Holzer and the Guerilla Girls. Unlike these artistic forebears, who excluded Indigenous womxn and other Indigenous communities, DinéYazhi’ focuses exclusively on marginalized groups, noting that ‘The details are gruesome and american and as patriotic as gun violence and mass murder.’ A Nation is a Massacre considers over 500 years of mass shootings and massacre, missing and murdered Indigenous womxn, queers, trans, gender gradient/nonconforming, and two-spirit folx, and numerous instances of environmental racism/injustice ignored by citizens of a colonized country.
(via exhibition text written by David Everitt Howe, Curator at Pioneer Works)
Installation shots from A NATION IS A MASSACRE at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY.
Photography courtesy of Pioneer Works.
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