Cross Generational
April 9 - June 2, 2002
The exhibition brought together the work of four contemporary Native American artists from the Plains States who are at varying stages in their artistic careers and in their experiences and lives. Participating artist John Hitchcock selected the artists for the exhibition.
John Hitchcock's work in the exhibition blended printmaking, digital imaging, video, and installation. The social and political views in his work are a direct result of stories shared by family members and issues regarding living on Kiowa/Comanche lands in Oklahoma. John often questions the notion of progress as he contemplates the relationship of past to present and the influence of technology on society. He asks through his work, "What have we learned from progress? What will be the fate of my people's indigenous ways?" His art is involved in the ideas of loss of language, spiritual beliefs, and culture due to the influence of Indian boarding schools, welfare programs, the notion of assimilation and control that is reinforced through government systems, etc.
Edgar Heap of Birds, one of America's leading Native American artists, represented the oldest generation in the exhibition. His works reflect "the constructive and destructive politics of daily life." They are based in a broad range of media, namely large-scale marker drawings, prints, abstract paintings, and text messages deployed in sculpture through billboards, digital signs, traffic panels, and porcelain enamel on steel.
Rosalie Favell, of Métis descent, is a photographer whose work has appeared in more than a dozen solo exhibitions and more than twenty group exhibitions in venues including Glasgow, Scotland, Santiago, Chile, and Taipei, Taiwan. Favell's work has, for some time now, explored issues of personal and cultural identities by questioning cultural constructs. She mines her family's snapshots and images from popular culture in search of visual evidence, clues to explain the shaping of her identity and to better situate herself as a contemporary native woman.
Patricia Marroquin, the youngest artist in the exhibition, received her M.F.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in video production, photography and printmaking. She exhibited her most recent video installation in the exhibition. She is of Chicana/Tarassan\Apache background, born and raised in Chicago by a family of migrant farmers, factory workers, and entrepreneurs of combined Native American and Mexican descent.
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