As Native American Heritage Month draws to a close and as many of us prepare to gather with family and friends, there are also opportunities to experience the Indigenous perspectives threaded throughout "PST ART: Art & Science Collide," both at UCLA and through alumni representation across the regional art event.
Themes of Indigenous futurism themes are prevalent. Standing sentry in the lobby of the Hammer Museum at UCLA is "Sovereign," a large-scale commissioned work by Cannupa Hanska Luger that challenges us to consider the ways in which Indigenous people have found a way to thrive in hostile environments. This is part of the Hammer's PST ART Exhibition "Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice," which is open through January 5.
Cree/Metis filmmaker Danis Goulet visited UCLA to talk about her award-winning film "Night Raiders," which is part of UCLA's Film & Television Archive PST ART screening series "Science Fiction Against the Margins," which runs through Dec. 7 at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum. In this work, Goulet places the Cree people in a not-so-distant dystopian future, which is an act of making people visible in a future even though forces over the centuries have sought to erase them from the land.
Two PST ART exhibitions at the Fowler Museum at UCLA center Indigenous knowledge in relation to craftmaking and land management traditions, reminding us that the people who lived in California and Mexico for thousands of years before European settlers were successful botanists and ecologists, and their descendants among us today have much to continue teaching us. "Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Tanya Aguiñiga & Porfirio Gutiérrez" is open now through January 12, when "Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art" will open. This unique exhibition seeks to counter attitudes of fear and illegality around fire, arguing for a return to Native practices in which fire is regarded as a vital aspect of land stewardship, community well-being and tribal sovereignty.
And several UCLA alumni artists are threaded throughout PST ART in museums and galleries across the city, offering perspectives on Indigenous cosmology, the convergence of traditional analog artmaking like weaving and new technology, digital practices and new views of ceremonial practices.
