Description
This fall, as debates around nationalism andborders in North America reach a fever pitch, Aperturemagazine releases "Native America," a special issueabout photography and Indigenous lives, guest editedby the artist Wendy Red Star. "Native America" considers the wide-ranging workof photographers and lens-based artists who posechallenging questions about land rights, identityand heritage, and histories of colonialism. Severalcontributors revisit or reconfigure photographicarchives--from writer Rebecca Bengal's look at theworks of Richard Throssel and Horace Poolaw, to artistDuane Linklater's intervention in a 1995 issue of Aperture , "Strong Hearts," the magazine's first volumedevoted to Native American photographers. "I was thinking about young Native artists," says RedStar, "and what would be inspirational and importantfor them as a road map." That map spans a diverse array of intergenerationalimage-making, counting as lodestars the meditativeassemblages of Kimowan Metchewais and installationworks of Alan Michelson, the stylish self-portraits ofMartine Gutierrez, and the speculative mythologies ofKaren Miranda Rivadeneira and Guadalupe Maravilla."Native America" also features contributions bydistinguished writers and curators, including strikinglypersonal reflections from acclaimed poets Tommy Picoand Natalie Diaz. With additional essential contributions fromRebecca Belmore and Julian Brave NoiseCat, aswell as a portfolio from Red Star, the issue looksinto the historic, often fraught relationship betweenphotography and Native representation, while alsooffering new perspectives by emerging artists whoreimagine what it means to be a citizen in NorthAmerica today.
