Alaska Native Arts: Traditional and Contemporary Non Western Art

During my last post, Rise of Feminist Artists, I had to narrow down my choices. Indigenous artwork was a choice during the assignment for our Mid/Post Modern blog exhibit. So I saved Indigenous artwork for our last post. I chose to explore traditional and contemporary artwork from Alaska Native artists. This semester I am also taking Alaska Native Studies: Indigenous Cultures of Alaska. I was inspired to learn about the traditions and cultural practices. After I watched this video for class,  Lineage: Tlingit Artists Across Generations. https://youtu.be/HIibbUVVJ74?si=Mak7YFRtVgmkKw93 I went exploring to find Lily Hope's exhibit of her completed Chilkat blanket for the Portland Museum and found many links with more information for you to explore and discover. Let's explore more female artists, who are being recognized for their cultural and traditional artwork. 

Resilience Robe

by Clarissa Rizal

2014, merino wool, 64 x 53 inches (Portland Art Museum) https://smarthistory.org/clarissa-rizal-resilience-robe/

Clarissa Rizal and Lily Hope are Tlingit Chilkat weavers who have been able to keep traditional weaving, as well as revive their tradition as a mother-and-daughter team. Above is Rizal's "Resilience Robe"  She learned how to weave from master weaver, Jennie Thlunalt. Chilkat weaving is practiced by Tlingit and other Northwest Coast peoples. 

There are initials ANB on the left and ANS on the right, these represent the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood. A civil rights organization. There are many more details on this ceremonial blanket. The links provided give a better understanding of how they pass on their tradition together from mother to daughter. 

 Below is Rizal's daughter, Lily Hope. They both have their artwork Portland Art Museum. I discovered this duo during my Alaska Native Studies class this semester. Hope was commissioned by the Portland Art Museum to weave a Chilkat blanket in 2016. She combines Ravenstail and Chilkat weaving techniques to create complex ceremonial robes. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Southeast where she teaches Fiber Spinning, Natural Dye, Career Development for the Artist, and all levels of Chilkat Ceremonial Regalia-making (independently), and offers lectures on the spiritual commitments of being a weaver. Here is Hope's Chilkat blanket, "Between Worlds" for the "Sharing Honors and Burdens" at the Renwick Invitational 2023, at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

Between Worlds

by Lily Hope

Lily Hope, Between Worlds(Child's Robe). Installation photography of Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American, Photo by Albert Ting

"The Codes We Carry"

by Erica Lord

Erica Lord, The Codes We Carry (installation), 2023, at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023

Erica Lord is an Athabascan and Iñupiat contemporary artist. She grew up in Nenana and learned to dog sled. Her inspiration behind the beaded dog blankets is the from when dog sled teams brought medicines to Alaska Native communities. Lord’s dog blankets show beaded microarrays analysis tests of diseases that have profoundly impacted Alaska Native tribes, such as diphtheria, smallpox, ovarian cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes, and COVID-19. Lord is also one of the six featured artists in Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023. The exhibition focuses on fresh and nuanced visions of Native American or Alaska Native artists who express the honors and burdens that connect people to one another. This is the first time Native Americans and Alaska Native artists have been selected for the Renwick Invitational, dedicated to showcasing emerging and mid-career makers deserving of wider national recognition. She is also a professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts. 

Below is a beaded burden strap. Traditionally a burden strap was used to adorn children in traditional Athabascan culture. Lord uses her beaded burden straps to raise awareness of the diseases that affect Indigenous peoples combining traditional Alaska Native art and raising awareness in a contemporary style. 

Leukemia Burden Strap

by Erica Lord

DNA/RNA Microarray Analysis, 2022, glass beads and wire, 7 1/2 × 94 1/2 × 1/4 in., Courtesy of the artist and Accola Griefen Fine Art. Photo by Addison Doty.

"In her community, woven or decorated hide straps are traditionally used to carry babies or heavy bundles. Lord reconfigured this technologically simple carrying device with materials and patterns representing diseases and conditions that particularly affect Native Alaskans today. Her transformation of customary burden straps and tuppies reflects the invisible and intangible things we carry: from love and pride in family and community to the burdens of historical trauma, colonialism, poverty, pollution, and environmental change."    

- Dr. Lara Evans, Independent Curator & Vice President of Programs, First Peoples Fund, from "Coded Burdens, Coded Honors," in Sharing Honors and Burdens (University of Washington Press)

Beaded Fur Heart

Amelia Simeonoff Medium: Beading, Skin Sewing

I came across this video, I am an Alaska Native Healer, after I finished watching Lord's YouTube video. Amelia Simeonoff is Alutiiq and an artist and traditional healer. Her journey began when her elder, Rita Blumenstein asked for someone to teach Alaska Native Arts at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. From there I found her artwork in a gallery in her hometown of Kodiak. The Alutiiq Museum is a non-profit educational organization governed by the Kodiak Alutiiq community. Their Mission is to preserve and share the heritage and living culture of the Alutiiq people, by celebrating heritage through living culture. Here is a link to the Artist Gallery to explore other local artists. She teaches how to bead and sew, and helps youth and adults through their grief through talking circles and drumming.

I would like to apply my art and social work degree in a therapeutic setting. Listening to Simeonoff talk about her experience while teaching beading and sewing to a student and them recognizing where they were healing their heart as they were stitching, shows how using the hands to create, helps mend a broken heart and heal mental health. Using the body to connect with the heart and mind. Watching her vlog helped me have a better visual and inspiration for helping others with their mental health.

Works Cited: 

Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/invitational-2023

Between Worlds. https://americanart.si.edu/blog/between-worlds

CCNA: Interwoven Radience - Lily Hope. https://youtu.be/YQUMVhBGECE?si=BrXk5Bk6p7HeOnzZ

I am an Alaska Native Healer | INDIE ALASKA. https://youtu.be/MyOIw78pwCA?si=TUSxcGZGWppnOGlT

Amelia Simeonoff. https://alutiiqmuseum.org/alutiiq-people/art/artist-gallery/amelia-simeonoff/ 

COLORES.Erica Lord, The Codes We Carry. Season 30 Episode 9 | 26m 23s https://www.pbs.org/video/erica-lord-the-codes-we-carry-iwxl8m/

Erica Lord. https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/invitational-2023/online/erica-lord