Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds / Public Art Gallery
Building Minnesota
Building Minnesota.
Installation printed on aluminum. Installations vary, including outdoor
version. Approximately 400 ft in length. 1990
The oppression and slaughter
of human beings by white American society does not only come from
hatred; greed and potential impediment to economic growth also feed the frenzy to kill and
destroy
people of color and spirits that grow from the soil or move to the surface that is our
earth. It is
therefore proper that we inform the Minnesota public to honor those forty Dakota tribal
citizens
who were executed by hanging in Minnesota in 1862 and 1865 by order of Presidents Abraham
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and with the support of the citizens of Minnesota.
As a sign of respect, forty Dakota-English, red lettered metal signs were exhibited
originally in
1990 in the earth in the business zone of what was called the Grain Belt. This is a proud
"historical"
districts of the city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota that houses the grain and
flour mills,
canals, and facilities to ship out the fruits of "American progress."
It was the potential disruption of American commerce that cost the Dakota people their
lives. The
Native tribes of the Upper Midwest were not allowed the sovereignty and dignity to provide
for
their own economic livelihood through hunting and gathering. The Native land base of this
region, as
in all America, was not given the right to exist intact in a prominent way and was
automatically
superseded by white invading immigrants and their hunger to cultivate and consume more of
this
earth.
As the forty signs are now offered in the Nash Gallery symbolically along the water called
the
Mississippi, which remains a highway for American business, we seek not only to extract
profit
from our surroundings. We also wish to honor the life-giving force of the waters that have
truly
preserved all of us from the beginning, and to offer respect to the tortured spirits of
1862 and 1865
that may have sought refuge and renewal through the original purity that is water.
Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds 1990
Day and Night Seattle
Day/Night 1991
Lushootseed (front) and English (back) text presented in porcelain enamel on steel panels, size 42" x 84".
English translation Panel on Left: Chief Seattle Now The Street Are Our Home
English translation Panel on Right: Far Away Brothers and Sisters We Still Remember You
The artwork is installed in conjunction with a previously existing sculptural bust of Chief Seattle
located at Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington.
With the sculpture Day/Night the theme of the porcelain panels seeks to proclaim that for many
transient inter-tribal people the streets of Seattle are home. Secondly it is declared that although these
tribal citizens have sought refuge in the urban centers which have sprung up on Indian Territory around
them, the far rural tribal communities from which the originate hold each and everyone's memory
in close and high regard.
"Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love it's winding rivers, it's great mountains and it's sequestered valleys and they ever yearn in affection over the lonely-hearted living and often return to visit, guide and comfort them.
Day and night cannot dwell together. The red man has ever fled the approach of the white man, as the changing mist on the mountainside flees before the blazing sun."
Chief Sealth (Seattle), Autumn 1854
24 long by 12 feet high. 1995.
Reclaim New York
This exhibit was first held in New York City, May 31-November 1988, City Hall Park, Manhattan.
This installation was sponsored by the Public art fund Inc, in cooperation with the New York City Department of Parks
and Recreation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs and
The NYC Dept. of Transportation. This particular sign is part of 6 1 1/2' x 3' aluminum.
Other native people acknowledged: Seneca, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Werpoe, Manhattan.
Reclaim, 1997 Biennial Exhibition of Public Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, University of New York, Purchase, New York
Wheel, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
Artist Edgar Heap of Birds has designed an outdoor sculpture for the front of the museum that will sit between the two entrances and incorporate the curved wall facing Fourteenth Avenue. Inspired by medicine wheels, centuries-old Puebloan kivas, and ancient Zapotec standing stelae, Heap of Birds envisions a circular sculpture fifty feet in diameter and aligned with the position of the sun at the summer solstice. Twelve red porcelain standing forms-each twelve feet tall and branching into a "Y" shape-will be screen-printed with symbols and text that "tell the history and future of Colorado's past and present Native American population and their interaction with the politics of American life," according to the artist. On the curved wall behind the forms will be the ninety-seven names of Cheyenne families present at the Sand Creek massacre of 1864.
Although Wheel is Heap of Bird's most ambitious project to date, the internationally acclaimed artist of Cheyenne and Arapaho descent has completed major public art commissions in New York, Seattle, Vancouver, and Santa Fe, among other cities. Each work is site-specific and created with consultation with the local community.
"Wheel is an important piece for us in several critical ways," says Nancy Blomberg, DAM's curator of native arts. "It furthers our goals of expanding our contemporary American Indian art holdings and maintaining a strong connection between these holdings and the Denver American Indian community. It also firmly places Edgar's work in the company of other established contemporary artists in the context of our overall outdoor sculpture program."
Funds from the AT&T Foundation, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, and the Native Arts Department's support group, the Douglas Society, have gotten us past the planning stage and into construction, and we've received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in additional support. If all goes well, we hope to dedicate the sculpture in August 2004.
Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds 1998
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