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Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
1
Acoustic Tipi
60" x 60" x 74"
Mahogany, cow hide drums, acrylic, steel hardware, bungee cords, drum sticks
2018
The Swamp School, Lithuania Pavilion, La BiennaleArchitettura di Venezia, Venice, Italy
May - November, 2018
“Personal Structures” European Cultural Center, Palazzo Mora, 2019 Biennale Arte, Venice
May -November 2019
The tipi sound amplifier is a drum interface that invites people to create audible vibrations
which reverberate throughout space. The traditional tipi is a Dakota portable home structure
for an extended family, it is a shape of strength. In this piece, the tipi is scaled to the body,
and its contours have been stylized to encourage sound transmitting capabilities. It is home
to four sacred drums. The embedded drums are of different sizes, each playing a different
tone. The drums reside within the structure via tension support cords which enable the sound
to be amplified and harmonized, projecting upwards and outwards. The drums have the
Anpa o wicahnpi/ morningstar painted in white, yellow, black and red, representing the four
cardinal directions. Anpa o wicahnpi is symbol of Dakota philosophy and in this context,
represents our people and our ways of life that are indigenous to the land. The tipi structure
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
2
resonates with the pure sound of the drum, directing it down into the ground and up into the
air, each beat a communication to the earth and cosmos. Acoustic Tipi is painted with a
scene from the story of Wakinyan/Thunderbirds and Unktehi/Water Serpent spirits who clash
in an epic battle from ancient times. Unktehi is a supernatural being who brings catastrophe
in the form of flooding, Wakinyan brings storms and atmospheric calamity. The war between
these supernatural beings is a way of describing the destruction of climate change through
Indigenous knowledge. Acoustic Tipi was built to occupy the Venice lagoon as a ground
zero site of climate change. The drum beats emanating from the structure can act as a sonic
prayer for our wetland ecosystems, existing between the worlds of the water and the land,
teeming with life, and increasingly threatened by human activity. The piece is a reminder of
the Dakota principle, mni wiconi – water is life, a reality that urgently needs to be recognized.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
3
Sound Vessels
Ceramic vessels, surface transducers, amplifier, mp3 player and soundscapes
2019
Sound Vessels is an installation of ceramic sculptures that transmit sounds. Using sound as a
material, this work explores how it can interact with objects, through the medium of earth, by
experimenting with various types of sounds and shapes. In Dakota philosophy, all things exist
within a continuum of life, and the foundational concept of mitakuye oyasin, that we are all
related, extends not only to other people, but also to animals, plants minerals, electricity, air
objects, and everything in existence. This piece illustrates this philosophy and concept by
linking the materiality of sound to form. Sound Vessels plays my heartbeat, a hand drum, a
rattle, fire, a train, liquid mud and spoken words in both Dakota and English languages. The
ceramic vessels are built to hold and transmit sound, rather than the usual use of clay vessels
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
4
as containers for solids or liquids. Each vessel plays individual sound compositions, creating a
randomized orchestra of objects. Sound Vessels is supported by a grant from the Council for
the Arts at MIT, and the Program in Art, Culture and Technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fWY0SlJSTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x2idM0cg9o
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
5
Mitakuye Oyasin/ We Are All Related
November 24, 2018
US Pavilion "Dimensions of Citizenship"
La Biennale di Venezia
Biennale Architettura 2018
US Pavilion courtyard
Mitakuye Oyasin/ We Are All Related was a ceremonial performance centered on healing,
finding lost cultural knowledge, and telling the story of climate change through the lens of
the Dakota legend of the Wakinyan/ Thunderbirds and Unktehi/ Water Serpent spirits. The
epic battle between these supernatural beings is a way of describing the catastrophic
effects of climate change through Dakota knowledge.
The power of Dakota language, oral tradition, dance, and creative and artistic processes–
which have been obscured through centuries of US policies of genocide and assimilation of
Indigenous people–were expressed to call for a profound shift in the evolution of humanity
towards a creative, holistic consciousness.
Mitakuye Oyasin, in the context of the "Dimensions of Citizenship" exhibition at Venice
Architecture Biennale, is powerful because the concept, which is the basis of Dakota
philosophy, holds that we are relatives of not only our families and other people, but
animals, plants, rocks, air, electricity, water - which is life itself - and everything in existence,
connected by interrelationships in a continuum of life.
By connecting the concepts of body outward to the cosmos through the sound of the
drum, movement, and burning medicines, the ancestors and spirit were invited to the
space. My cousin, Adam Genia, an award-winning powwow singer and drummer provided
a song which was played on a sound vessel with the sound of a heartbeat.
Images of ancient glyphs were drawn on the site of this important US cultural embassy, using
a small quantity of canupa/ pipestone pigment. The images brought indigenous Dakota
presence to the site in an unbroken line, at an institution in the tradition of Worlds Fair-type
expos, which have had a historically troubled legacy for Indigenous people.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
6
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
7
Earthling
Mask: acrylic and architectural model vegetation on canvas
2019
Human understanding has come far away from the reality that we are not separate from
the earth, we are the earth. How do our responsibilities to ourselves, each other and our
world change if this reality was the basis of our collective thought and action? Earthling is a
character that appears in various performance, both scripted an improvisational.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
8
Fourth World Flag
5’ x 8’
Hand-pieced ripstop nylon
2018
“The Fourth World is the name given to indigenous
peoples descended from a country’s aboriginal
population and who today are completely or
partly deprived of the right to their own territories
and its riches. The peoples of the Fourth World
have only limited influence or none at all in the
national state to which they belong” (George
Manuel, World Council of Indigenous Peoples).
Presented on this flag is powerful Dakota
iconography, the Morningstar, which signifies a
way of life that is deeply connected to the natural
world and teaches respect for relationships
between living systems. Many colors, some hand-
dyed, are pieced together to celebrate the
diversity of Indigenous peoples around the globe.
Promoting unity across peoples of the Fourth
World, it serves as a symbol to rally around while
working together for shared causes. Many
different kinds of people, many ways of thinking
and being make us stronger if we embrace our
differences as well as our similarities.
Figure 2. In Performance at US Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale
Figure 1. Installed in Lobby 7
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
9
Artifact Trapped
Micaceous ceramic, wood, amplifier, surface transducers, mp3 player, soundscape
2019
In my museum research, I have come across hundreds of Dakota ancestral works that
remain trapped in museum collections, hidden away, inaccessible to our people. This piece
probes the boundary between museum culture and Indigenous perspectives by
challenging the Wunderkammer aesthetic. It asks how we can reconcile the Indigenous
reality that ancient artifacts have a life of their own and their own agency with the politics
of museum collection, preservation and display? The bowl is a ceremonial feast bowl
depicting Iya, the spirit of gluttony. Through sound, the piece “speaks” in Dakota and cries
out, to complicate the viewer’s perception of a museum artifact.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
10
After Powhatan’s Robe
Acrylic, gold leafed ceramic shells on curtain
60” x 75”
2018
Powhatan’s Mantle is an exquisite garment that ended up in the very first museum in the
world – as part of a collection that was a cabinet of curiosity. The piece is an incredibly
detailed culturally significant work, this piece is a response to the loss of Indigenous peoples
and cultures and the injustice of masterpieces ending up in the collections of colonizers.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
11
InVisible
Pieced organza
60” x 60”
2017
When worn as a shawl, InVisible provides a symbolic skin of protection against pervasive
cultural supremacy. The morningstar form is an expression of cultural power which is used
here to transform. Is white cultural supremacy, which expropriates and erases other cultures,
a translucent veil so permeating it's nearly invisible to those living under it? As a Dakota
person, I experience cultural supremacy as a tool of the dominant culture that sets itself as
the standard, forces assimilation and constantly perpetuates itself to reinforce structures
and institutions which maintain a limited picture of reality. The white gossamer fabric of this
shawl is nearly transparent, but as it moves, it reflects rays of light in a full spectrum of colors,
which affirms its self-possessed strength of presence. It is a reminder that other realities are
possible.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
12
Iĥpeya, Piyepićaśni
Ceramic vessels, topographic maps, and copper, coal, molybdenite and gold specimens
from the Harvard Mineralogical Collection, 2018
Dakota philosophy holds that humans are not separate from or greater than the earth and
its processes. With this in mind, how can we approach drastically changed landscapes
resulting from widespread human-caused environmental degradation? Once the sought-
after parts of the earth’s body are taken and processed into the essential elements that
make modern living possible what happens to the landscapes left behind? Using earth itself,
in the form of clay, vessel-like representations explore these contours. Iĥpeya, means to
discard/ throw away, and is used here to describe the increasing number of places on
earth that are spent, trashed, contaminated, detonated, destroyed. Piyepićaśni means
broken beyond repair/ unfixable, and in this context implicates Western philosophies of
separation from nature and the hierarchy of man which, compounded over hundreds of
years of dominance, have caused widespread ecological collapse and climate change.
We don’t have to look far to see the landscapes altered by modern living. What’s harder to
see is the imperative of remembering our deep relationship to the land we live on/ land we
are.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
13
Eclipse
MDF particle board, LEDs and acrylic
36” x 36”
2017
August 21, 2017 was the day of the solar eclipse. It was also the day I left Olympia,
Washington and drove over 3,000 miles with my three children to Medford, Massachusetts to
settle in and begin my studies at MIT. Before we departed on our journey that day, we
observed and reflected upon the awesome event. Inspired by images of the eclipse
corona, I created this piece using the Morningstar form. Layered surfaces, painted with the
colors of the four directions, render the unique play of light that occurs when heavenly
bodies align.
https://eringeniaportfolio.blogspot.com/2017/10/morningstar-form-expressed-through-
cnc.html
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
14
Diaspora & Discord
MDF particle board, ribbon, wire, glass beads, screen printed fabric,
jingles, dentalium, disco ball motor
30” x 14” x 14”
2017
As a Dakota person living in the diaspora that was created as a result of the U.S- Dakota
War, I explore the confusing tangle of paths traversed between 33 places spanning the
Midwest, the Great Plains and into Canada that thousands of Dakota people traveled from
1862 and the 1880s. Using ribbons, jingles and dentalium used in creating powwow regalia, I
have created a column of vitality, which shows that, despite our separation and struggle
over generations after being forced from our sacred homeland of Minnesota, we remain a
people with our culture. As a mobile structure, the piece engages gravity and the air
currents of its surroundings, subtly moving with them. Beginning with a structural form of a
Morningstar, four arrows wind around the piece and each other, illustrating back-and-forth
paths taken across distance. The arrow’s points are made from silkscreened Morningstar
forms which have been cut into four pieces, representing our separation in all four
directions. The names of the 33 places Dakota people were moved to and from are written
upon the base Morningstar form. As the piece rotates, either from the wind or from the
motorized base, a beaded spiral radiates, signaling disorientation.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
15
Left: back view with projection
Right: front view
Morningstar Lightchamber
Mixed media: wood, lens, pvc pipe, Arduino boards, rgb LED, stepper motor,
epoxy composite, hardware, rockite, acrylic
16” x 22” x 24”
2018
Morningstar Lightchamber is an optical projection unit that transmits colored light through a
mirrored chamber crafted to the shape of an eight-pointed star. It’s programmable in all
colors of the RGB spectrum. The unit displays a kaleidoscopic image on the wall or other
surface at a distance of up to 8 meters away, and it can be adjusted to variable angles of
up to 60 degrees, to project on a ceiling. The unit has a programmable stepper motor and
belt attached to a PVC pipe which rotates the chamber. It rotates at two speeds, slow and
medium, it also accelerates, decelerates and rotates the opposite way. The piece
produces ambient colored light, projecting a powerful symbol of strength and beauty on a
variety of surfaces.
http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/863.17/CBA/people/Erin%20Genia/finalproject.html
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
16
Anpa O Wicahnpi
Ripstop nylon
5’ x 35’
installed at Seattle Center, 2017-18
As an urban Dakota person, whose traditional home is far away, it’s rare to see images from
my culture reflected in local art. I know there are many people like me, living in a diaspora,
who are here as a result of the federal Relocation policy of the 1960s. This piece is an
homage to our journey and a shout out to fellow Oceti Sakowin, Great Sioux Nation people
who reside in the Pacific Northwest. This piece activated the space in a lighthearted way
while also carrying a message that diversity is beautiful and pays homage to urban Native
people’s resilience through vibrant cultural expression.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
17
Canupa Iyan – Bdote Pilgrimmage, 2017
"Canupa Inyan: Researching the Carvings of My Ancestors," is an ongoing project I am
working on, where I document catlinite pieces in museum collections in order to inform my
work as an artist. Since 2015, I have worked with ancestral objects at the Washington State
History Museum, the Burke Museum, the National Museum of
Natural History, the Minnesota Historical Society and now, NMAI.
Through this work, I have I created new pieces of artwork based
on historical pieces and traditional forms. I created drawings and
diagrams of pieces and I began writing on the subject of
pipestone and the significance of this stone for my people. I work
with my son, Sam to teach him how to carve the stone. I create
traditional pipestone form mock-ups using clay and I make pipes
for use in ceremony. One of the pieces I created is a series of
small faces. This one, Girl with a Dimple, I made as a happy, smiling little girl to counter the
ubiquitous images we see of the stoic Indian. When in Minneapolis for the First Peoples Fund
Convening, I made a pilgrimage to Bdote, on Pike Island, which is a place that is our sacred
place of origin at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. It is also a place of
great tragedy, since our people were kept in an internment camp there through the winter
of 1862 -3 before being banished from our homeland. Many people died that winter on the
island. I wanted to bring Girl with a Dimple there are place her in the ground as an offering
to the ancestors who suffered there and also as a way to reclaim the space for our Dakota
people, because it is also the site of Fort Snelling.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
18
Sun Gourd, Anpa Wi
Glazed terracotta, gourd, acrylic, light fixture
4” x 4 ½” x 3½”
2016
Anpa Wi is the sun and the peacemaker in Dakota culture. In depicting the sun as a being,
this piece highlights the paradigmatic dissonance between Western and Indigenous
cultures, in which indigenous cultures believe in the inherent life of all aspects of the
universe.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
19
Facing/ Not Facing: Toxic Devastation From Oil
Glazed terracotta, brass, plaster, wood, acrylic
18” x 12” x 3”
2016
Broken pipelines delineate the four directions, the spill reaches out to all corners of the
earth. At the heart of the crisis are humans who are both responsible for the mess and
endangered by it.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
20
Open Pit Gold Mine Vessel
Raku-fired clay and gold leaf
15.25” x 15.5” x 5”
2015
This slab-built, raku-fired vessel was made during an International Indigenous Artists’
Gathering in New Zealand. It was created to highlight harmful resource extraction practices
that damage the land and people. It broke in several pieces during the trip home to
Washington. I put the pieces back together, using gold leaf to highlight the cracks and
mimic gold veins emerging from the rock. During this process, I learned about the Japanese
method, kintsugi, the art of repairing pottery and the belief that the piece is more beautiful
for having been broken. Won “Best of Show” at In the Spirit: Contemporary Native Arts
Exhibit, Washington State History Museum, Tacoma, Washington in 2015.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
21
Blood Quantum Countdown
Ceramic, acrylic on canvas, plaster, silver, clock parts
24” x 24” x 2”
2011
Issues surrounding indigenous identity and the Western-imposed blood quantum system are
explored with two different varieties of clay and a working clock. Like the construct of time
which was imposed through colonization, blood quantum has imprinted itself upon our
collective psyche. The image of lightning, which instantly attracts the attention of all who
see it flash, draws attention to the dangers of basing our identity upon racist instruments. The
piece warns that continuing its use leads to a countdown to our extinction as indigenous
peoples.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
22
Self-Decolonization: On the Dakota Uprising
Terracotta, plaster, acrylic, cedar, maps,
21” x 24”
2010
This piece is a symbolic attack on an icon of imperialism—Abraham Lincoln, who presided
over the largest mass execution in United States history—of 38 Dakota men who took part in
the 1862 Dakota Uprising. It is a window into the past that revisits a hidden history of how this
country came to be what it is and revises landscapes to reflect our ever-present ancestors. I
am a descendant of survivors of genocide, ethnic cleansing, expulsion, relocation, and
internment. This piece revisits a painful past whose legacy is still with us. The piece explores
the concept of blood money and subverts the ideals of American mythology while asking,
“Who are my heroes?” Part of a series called Self-Decolonization I which the act of creating
works is a potent vehicle for decolonizing my own mind and bringing sanity to my life. In
learning the truth about my history and trying to make sense of my world, I seek to shed
values that have been imposed on me and reclaim those that are my birthright.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
23
Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project
30’ x 50’ x 1’
2011
A project of the Rachel Corrie Foundation, I worked as a mural production coordinator to
organize community outreach workshops to create clay tiles, which line the bottom of the
mural. The mural brought together local community groups, national and international
groups and artists to create a leaf on the giant tree.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
24
Mobile Spill Response
36” x 15” x 15”
Clay, found items, vinyl, acrylic
2016
Made for the exhibit, “Protect the Sacred: Native Artists for Standing Rock,” at Spaceworks
Gallery in Tacoma, this piece was made to highlight the inevitability of oil spills, and the
environmental destruction that that occurs when pipelines are constructed.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
25
Wakinyan speaks
Micaceous clay, glaze, brass, acrylic, wood
30” x 30” x 5”
2016
With a red earth palette, I used clay to render a storm: clouds, and whirlwinds show the
atmospheric turbulence caused by climate change and its effects on earth. A human face
that is caught up in the fray asks what role people have played in creating this earth crisis.
Streaks of clear glaze and acrylic bring rain. A lightning bolt at the center, which draws the
attention of all who see it flash, captures the moment the Wakinyan, or Thunderbeings,
speak a warning.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
26
Dakota in the Pacific Northwest
Cotton, ribbon, jingles, clay, wire, found object
65” x 52” x 52”
2017
I’m a Dakota in the Pacific Northwest, living in the diaspora that was created as a result of
the Dakota War of 1862, when our people were exiled from our homeland of Minnesota.
The Indian Relocation Act further dispersed our people, from reservations around the
Midwest to cities around the country. Suspended from a cascade of rain jingles and fluffy
clouds, the Morningstar form embodies the beauty and resilience of our people, even when
far from home.
Erin Genia, SMACT ‘19
Portfolio - May 2019
27
Transformation Fish, Swimming Together Installation
Micaceous clay and slip
19” x 7” x 3”
2015
This piece depicts a scene from a story I once heard but can’t remember. It shows the
moment a man transforms into a pickerel. It’s a cautionary tale, but the lesson has escaped
me. This work is about remembering stories, forgetting stories, never knowing the story. The
fish was sculpted in three separate parts to show the disconnection I often feel from my
culture, as one who lives far from my home, as a product of assimilation. Part of a
forthcoming permanent installation, “Swimming Together” at The Evergreen State College
Indigenous Arts Campus. “Swimming Together” is a collaborative piece created by
indigenous artists and led by Nora Naranjo Morse (Tewa). It can be seen below as installed
at Sgwigwial?txw at 20: Building upon the Past, Visioning into the Future, The Longhouse
Education and Cultural Center 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Evergreen Gallery, The Evergreen
State College, Olympia, Washington.