still\ˈstil\ Artist Opening with Quinn Smith

November 12, -
Speaker(s): Quinn Smith
Artists Opening with Quinn Smith: November 12, 2021, 5-8pm
Exhibit on view: November 11, 2021 - November 21, 2021

Misconceptions about Indigenous peoples are as prevalent today as ever before. Mainstream media and inadequate schooling have shaped our lexicon. One of the most prominent examples of this is the use of the word "still". For example, Indigenous peoples are still here, rather than simply here. In many ways, still here implies that Indigenous peoples should have disappeared.

In this installation, Quinn Smith of Chickasaw Nation, uses text to challenge common misconceptions about Indigenous peoples through a combination of personal narrative and historical data. The exhibit covers the topics of land, kinship, nation, blood, theft, and genocide. The content within each of these categories overlaps and it none of it exists in isolation.

By limiting the exhibition to the written word, Smith seeks to deny the continued misuse, acquisition, and sale of Indigenous imagery and artifacts by museums and galleries. The mock dictionary is an opportunity to relearn vocabulary; to read, reckon with and attend to the unsettling personal narrative presented by Smith.
Sponsor

American Tobacco Campus - Power Plant

Co-Sponsor(s)

Center for Documentary Studies (CDS); Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts (MFAEDA)