#indigenous aesthetics

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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#ANATIONISAMASSACRE
#IndigenousAesthetics
#PortlandBiennial2019
#DemianDineYazhi
#PortlandBiennial
#RISEindigenous
#IndigenousArt
#NativeYouth
#Risograph
#NativeArt
#Disjecta

#COLLECTIVEFURY

Join Demian DinéYazhi´+ Cannupa Hanska Luger at Recess in Brooklyn, NY, as they debut a new performance piece that is a commentary on Indigenous masculine identity, residential boarding schools, enacting agency as radical trust and mutual care, the sacredness of Indigenous bodies, and a million other things that create cosmic savages.

Lou Cornum @spaceface2.0 will also present and read from the #COLLECTIVEFURY Critical Writing Fellowship piece.

Bring yr community out and SUPPORT LIVING INDIGENOUS POETS + ARTISTS!

@recessart | 07 FEB 2019 - 7PM
46 Washington Ave., Brooklyn, NY

For more information on #COLLECTIVEFURY :
https://www.recessart.org/demian-dineyazhi-r-i-s-e/

FREE high resolution 12” x 18” poster honoring Sharice Davids, Nathan Phillips, and Deb Haaland. RESPECT INDIGENOUS UPRISING ✊ The future called and asked us to commemorate this moment. We have always been here resisting white fuckery in a heteropatriarchal settler colonial nation state that violently forced some of us to convert to western religious mythology. As with all our posters, feel liberated to share, print, repost, disseminate & wheatpaste at will!

R.I.S.E.:
RADICAL
INDIGENOUS
SURVIVANCE &
EMPOWERMENT

http://burymyart.tumblr.com
http://facebook.com/RISEindigenous
http://etsy.com/shop/DemianDineYazhi