Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969
June 24 – November 26, 2023
→ Hessel Museum of Art
Total Synchronization, Performance by Maria Hupfield (Anishinaabek, Wasauksing First Nation / Canada), November 18th, 2023 2pm-3pm, in the gallery with her artworks currently on display at Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. Check the website for a list of performances.
Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 is the first large-scale exhibition of its kind to center performance and theater as an origin point for the development of contemporary art by Native American, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Alaska Native artists, beginning with the role that Native artists have played in the self-determination era, sparked by the Occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes in 1969. Native artists then and now are at the vanguard of performance art practices and discourse.
Exhibition artists include over 100 works by: KC Adams (Métis), asinnajaq (Inuk), Sonny Assu (Ligwiłda’xw Kwakwaka’wakw from Wei Wai Kum Nation), Natalie Ball (Klamath/Modoc), Rick Bartow (Wiyot), Rebecca Belmore (Member of the Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe)), Bob Boyer (Métis), Dana Claxton (Lakota), Theo Jean Cuthand (Plains Cree, Scottish, Irish), Ruth Cuthand (Plains Cree, Scottish, Irish, Canadian), Beau Dick (Kwakwaka’wakw, Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw First Nation), Demian DinéYahzi’ (Diné), Rosalie Favell (Métis (Cree/ British)), Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin, Czech and Dutch), Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂), Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw and Cherokee), Ishi Glinsky (Tohono O’odham), Raven Halfmoon (Caddo), Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill (Métis), Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians), Maria Hupfield (Anishnaabek, Wasauksing First Nation / Canada), Matthew Kirk (Navajo/Diné), Kite (Oglala Sioux Tribe), Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota), Tanya Lukin Linklater (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq), Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw), James Luna (Payómkawichum, Ipai, and Mexican), Rachel Martin (Tlingit/Tsaagweidei, Killer Whale Clan, of the Yellow Cedar House (Xaai Hit’) Eagle Moiety), Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba)), Audie Murray (Métis), Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee), New Red Order (Adam Khalil (Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians), Zack Khalil (Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians), and Jackson Polys (Tlingit)), Jessie Oonark (Inuk), Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), Eric-Paul Riege (Diné), Walter Scott (Kahnawá:ke), Spiderwoman Theater (Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, and Muriel Miguel (all Rappahannock and Kuna)), Charlene Vickers (Anishinaabe), Kay WalkingStick (Citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and Anglo), Marie Watt (Seneca and German-Scot), Dyani White Hawk (Sičangu Lakota), and Nico Williams (Anishinaabe).
In partnership with CCS Bard, the Center for Indigenous Studies will present specially curated performances and a series of artist talks that expand the exhibition into new conceptual territory and themes.
Exhibition Publication
Indian Theater will be accompanied by a major publication, Native Visual Sovereignty: A Reader on Art and Performance, edited by Candice Hopkins and co-published by Dancing Foxes Press, CCS Bard, and Forge Project. The publication will chart the evolution of Indigenous North American performance and self-determination in contemporary art over the past 60 years. Available in fall 2023, Native Visual Sovereignty gathers extensive scholarship on the development Native North American performance, art, and visual sovereignty, including newly commissioned essays, poetry, and oral history interviews, alongside reprints of critical texts by leading Indigenous scholars and artists.
Curated by Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), Forge Project’s Executive Director and CCS Bard’s Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies, with curatorial research led by Amelia Russo, this major exhibition celebrates the partnership established in 2022 with Forge Project to provide dedicated programming on key topics and methods in Native American and Indigenous studies throughout the Bard network.
maria hupfield 