SANTA FE – “What’s most exciting about the exhibit is the experimentation each graduate student has undertaken,” says Dakota Mace, who is a mentor artist at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). Beyond Masterywhich will continue until June 30, presents the work of the first Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts (MFASA) at the IAIA, exhibited off-campus at the Coe Center and the Container Gallery. Mace called this exhibition the first of its kind because it challenges Western colonial approaches to artistic creation, education and its hierarchical structure. Many of these artists produced works at different scales and using mediums they had not previously considered. The program’s Indigenous pedagogical goals and methods allowed each artist to push their conceptual practice beyondresulting in a stunning and challenging spectacle.
Beyond Mastery collaboratively interrogates the idea of acquiring a “Masters” and Masters of Fine Arts from an Indigenous perspective. This two-year program “provides a professional degree in Studio Arts while allowing students to live at home and continue to participate in work, family, and community”, and includes intensive summer residencies and winter at the IAIA campus in Santa Fe. Director Dr. Mario A. Caro says the program is centered on mentoring, supporting individualized study plans and artistic practices, and expanding relationships community. Because of this Indigenous pedagogical framework and mission, mentor artists have enthusiastically committed to participating, while maintaining their own practices and careers in their communities. Artist mentor Tanya Lukin Linklater said, “From my experience and understanding of Indigenous practices, we learn continuously throughout our lives. Centering an Indigenous perspective across the lifespan provides space to take risks and produce innovative thesis work.
“Where can you say all your mentors are aboriginal? asks artist and graduate student Margarita Paz-Pedro. Many students have applied to the IAIA because of this radical and unique representation within universities and arts institutions. Even with all Indigenous mentors, however, it is essential to highlight the diversity of their tribal affiliations, histories, homelands, and interdisciplinary artistic practices and methods. Student Carmen Selam shared, “What I love about IAIA is that you don’t have to do the whole ‘Indigenous 101’ because there is already a context for indigeneity, so you can really focus on working and growing.” Many artists have entered the MFA program with decades of experience and developed practices, but each artist has taken on new interdisciplinary work.
Dr. Caro notes: “The first year is entirely experimental; we try to get people out of their discipline […] and encourage them to play, make mistakes… [and] grow as artists. Academic disciplines generally operate as a system of rules within a field, but at IAIA there is a commitment to fostering unstructured creative inquiry. Raven Chacon, Pulitzer Prize winner and artist mentor, wants students to know, “There’s nothing wrong with doing things that you don’t know the exact outcome. And you can fail. Because that’s what an experience is. Many students identify errors, as well as creative explorations, as part of the growth process; this approach offers the possibility of transformation beyond its practice. For example, Shane Hendren entered the program with over 30 years of experience as a goldsmith and jewelry maker, but in his freshman year he turned to acting, working with mentors from artists like Chacon and Anna Hoover. Hendren’s films document historical, personal and environmental intergenerational storytelling. “Matanza” features a pork butcher to honor the life of Larry Ortiz while contextualizing Genízaros, descendants of captive Native Americans, in New Mexico. Working with her family and the Navajo community, the films ‘Grandma Said’ and ‘Grandma Says Diné’ convey knowledge shared through oral and active listening, while ‘Sunup to Sundown’ is a montage film of her meditative practice. of watching sunrises and sunsets and is thrown into a round tank filled with water.
At the Coe Center, all the artists use innovative installation techniques. Margarita Paz-Pedro has moved from production pottery to a multidisciplinary conceptual practice. “Parts of the Whole” is a large installation that questions how knowledge is produced and shared through history, territory, structures and relationships. Traditional pottery designs are painted directly on the walls in the form of monumental murals and adobe bricks that serve as abodes or habitats for its ceramic pottery and shards.
Dominick Porras said working with mentor artist Jackson Polys helped form his concept of “memory repositories” or the construction of individual/community cultural histories (i.e. dreams, mythologies, lived experiences) , as valid forms of research. Porras’ interactive installation, ‘p’Akenmamm’, features a large-scale net suspended from the ceiling, inviting the public to interact with it and touch it, which triggers a video projection of fish. His films “Culture Confidential: Talking Stones” and “Simulation: Voladores” use 3D digital sculpture/animation and investigate Mesoamerican cosmovision/cosmology and environmental consciousness. Interdisciplinary artist Nika Feldman is interested in making visible the invisible exploitation of earthwork in textile and fashion production. His haunting hanging installation of white t-shirts, titled ‘Kriah and the Hungry Ghosts’, explores the Jewish tradition, in which holes are cut in clothing, to illustrate grief/mourning. “Footnotes of Atrocity” is another part of a larger trilogy, titled Cancel a coded calland all of these works explore her concepts of sabotage, schmatte prowess, and feminist sabotage.
Carmen Selam’s interdisciplinary installation “Switch Dance” flows in a circular motion, much like a powwow or a dance, and invites the audience to engage in this flow. She proposes “new mourning protocols”, stemming from experience. They include large photographs and videos, as well as seed bead buckskin bags – “23 Tamish” and “The black Pearl.” As a former queer Indigenous pageant queen who grew up on the reservation, she has reassessed her visibility and position in the arts, which she defines as “revolutionary” and continues to showcase with her work.
Joseph (wahalatsu) Seymour, Jr., whose work is on display at the Container Gallery, says, “I work in every way I can to preserve Coast Salish culture. […] and mentors like Sara Siestreem asked me to go beyond a static image. Because the alphabet of his traditional language is only about 50 years old, Seymour explained how important it was to include the language in his image making, such as in “Enjoy Beautiful bastiqiyu.” In his paper weaves, like “Mesa in the Valley,” he deconstructs two archival documents and weaves a new image representing the Salish Agency. Angélica M. Garcia’s installation “El Altar Olvidado” includes some of her businesses in papermaking, sound, and film. Her work centers on her maternal grandmother, Teofila Peña, who died on a coffee plantation in El Salvador. She interweaves personal stories with the violent realities and impacts of global capitalism. On opening night, Garcia performed a live serenade offering, or offering, which further activated the altar space.
Another artist working with paper, Susanna Mireles-Mankus has expanded her painting practice by exploring larger scale works incorporating text and bookmaking. She is interested in the materiality of seeds and their symbolic cyclical potential. “Memories of Heat” is an accordion book incorporating watercolor, photo collage, ink and poetry from his dreams and lived experience. The work travels through the earth, dreamscapes and future potentials.
Madelynn Boyiddle-Schoel, aka Madboy, placed her work outside of Container’s gallery. “Whole Bison Mindset” is a sculpture of an ear made from a butterfly chair frame, chicken wire, packing foam and other repurposed materials. Boyiddle-Schoel credits his environmental research findings and program mentors like Sara Siestreem with spurring him to “educate already established educators,” with diverse manufacturing methods grounded in the pedagogical practice of sustainable arts. Her artistic output inspired her daughter to recycle and reinvent the types of things that could be considered art supplies.
This cohort of students continued their studies and artistic practice during the pre-vaccine COVID-19 pandemic and completed their first year entirely online. During their first semester, the cohort tragically lost friend and colleague DeAnna Autumn Leaf Suazo. Upon their balaclava graduation, his family received an honorary certificate of recognition and a scholarship was established in his memory.
Beyond Mastery showcases the powerful creative openness of “lifelong learning” in the IAIA’s first MFASA cohort. Much of the public discourse on Indigenous traditions and history creates stereotypical expectations of “Indigenous art”. Rather, this exhibit illustrates how the IAIA breaks free and expands really beyond these expectations inside and outside the artistic community.
