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AMBI: THE SOUNDS OF CONSTRUCTION
NAAR:
At the end of the Fulton Street mall in Brooklyn, the Selena Gallery at Long Island University was undergoing some changes as the blank, white walls are prepped for art. It's one of three galleries working together for the Native Voices show this week. Thursday nights showing held art by nine different artists. But curators still had work to do before opening the doors.
AMBI: MORE CONSTRUCTION
NARR:
What Native art is and what makes a Native artist can be dicey. Background and heritage play into the equation but so does content. The artists in Native Voices have been picked based on their racial background and the contemporary content of their work. In other words, they shy away from traditional forms.
AX: CHAPA
The art here in New York and in other cosmopolitan areas tends to be more geared towards a modern art scene.
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NARR:
Raquel Chapa is Lipan Apache, Yaqui and Eastern Band Cherokee. She's one of the curators for Native Voices, and she says the modern art market is much different then the Native art market. An industry based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
AX: CHAPA
It's very much geared toward tourism and tourists that are fascinated with Native culture. Where as somebody who is interested, you know, inspired by Picasso or Kandinsky, they tend not to be what people are looking for if they're looking for a Native motif.
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NARR:
Chapa says that art collectors haven't accepted that Native artists are fine artists but hopes that the show will help to clear up the confusion.
AMBI: canvas rolls out
NARR:
It's Tuesday evening and Yataka Fields unrolls one of his paintings. It's large piece, and nearly vibrates off the canvas with color and movement. Fields is Osage, Cherokee and Creek from Oklahoma. He's been in New York for four years working as a bike messenger by day and painting by night in his Brooklyn studio. A corner of the room is devoted to his painting gear and he rolls out a red cloth placemat wrapped around his brushes.
AMBI: brushes clatter together
AXE: FIELDS
Those are the ones that I mostly use in this rolled up thing right here. More sacred brushes I would say, you know? They have some kind of power, so I keep those rolled up and warm.
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NARR:
His studio is filled with paintings in all different styles. Yet they all seem to be informed by two major themes: his upbringing and his life in New York. But when you look at his work, one of the first things that hit you is the color.
AXE: FIELDS
The colors that I use are definitely from my upbringing. Just those colors that you always see when you're younger with dance regalia or blankets or all that stuff that's always around the house, just these fantastic colors that you're always around, in Pendleton's or old beadwork or ribbon work, and those things become embedded in your mind.
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NARR:
When he thinks about how he would be defined, Fields says he doesn't want to be known just as a Native artist.
AXE: FIELDS
I guess I'd just want to be an American artist, because that's what I am. You see American artists today and they're not even from America. It's just weird. You don't see native artists out there doing that.
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NARR:
With the thousands of galleries in New York City, there are only two outlets devoted to Native artists: the American Indian Community House Gallery and the National Museum of the American Indian. Both venues feature artists working in traditional and contemporary mediums. Deborah Everett is an art critic currently working on a text book on Native artists. She's a co-curator on the show and says that American audiences don't want to hear about Native issues.
AXE: EVERETT
Native art tends to offer an experience that has tremendous depth but is also close to the surface. And by that I mean that there is a lot of contemporary art that puts a lot layers between you and it. It doesn't seek to put the viewer at a distance.
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AMBI: crowd noises
NARR:
It's opening night and the walls of the Selena Gallery are full. Two large pieces by Yatika Fields are nailed to the wall. Perry Bliss, an art lover and accountant from Manhattan, takes a moment to admire the work.
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AXE:
You know you look at these artists and people think Native American and they don't expect the work to be what this work represents. It's more contemporary, abstract artists that are representative of what I think contemporary art is.
NARR:
Native Voices will stay open till March twenty-third at Long Island University, FiveMyles Gallery, and Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn.
Tristan Ahtone, Columbia Radio News