Courtesy of Shaarbek Amankul
And we go on, keep giving birth and watch
ourselves die, over and over.
And the ground spinning beneath us
goes on talking.
–Joy Harjo, “For Alva Benson, And for Those Who Have Learned to Speak”
The Language of Place is a group exhibition featuring mixed media painting by Heidi Brandow (Diné & Kānaka Maoli); photography and video by Shaarbek Amankul (Indigenous Kyrgyz); beadwork and photography by Thomas Jones (Ho-Chunk); Indigenous Kyrgyzstani textiles designed by Amankul and Brandow and made by Kyrgyzstani artisans; and a pair of mocassins handmade by Clementine Bordeaux (Sičáŋǧu Lakótapi [Rosebud Sioux Tribe]). Co-curated by Amankul and Brandow, this exhibition examines how land, history, and cultural knowledge inform and shape the creative processes of four artists whose practices are intricately embedded in their relationships with land and environment.
