May 3, 2018 the show “Lazy Stitch” opened. Organized by artist Cannupa Hanska Luger the promotional material for the show reads “…
AZY STITCH exhibition opened May 3 at Ent Center for Contemporary Art UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art
Colorado Springs, CO. Organized by Cannupa Hanska Luger with collaborating artists Chip Thomas, Jesse Hazelip, Kali Spitzer, Kathy Whitman & 1000 Tiny Mirrors. Lazy Stitch is on exhibition through July 21, 2018
Contemporary artists from diverse backgrounds work together in collaboration with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger to present a new exhibition that investigates the interconnectedness of the human story. Through social engagement, public art, monumental sculpture, mural installation, photography, performance and wearable sculptural regalia, Lazy Stitch takes the relationship of the bead and the thread as its context, co-creating narrative about life on this planet.
“What constitutes a bead is the hole. It holds the thread. The voided matter actually creates the function of the object. This void becomes the potential for connection. In this respect, finding value in the relationship between humans acknowledges the importance of intersecting experiences which create a larger narrative.” -Cannupa Hanska Luger
The term lazy stitch describes a sewing methodology often used in Indigenous beadwork. Individual multi-colored beads are threaded and sewn, one row at a time, eventually revealing a complex image when all rows are complete. The lazy stitch is an approach to craft-making, but also represents a value system in which each individual is important to the whole. Lazy Stitch uses this metaphor as a way to explore contemporary issues through collaborative practice, while revealing the potential for collective social agency.”
This past February I spent a weekend with Cannupa, artist Cheyenne Randall and curator Erin Joyce. It was this time that afforded me the opportunity to learn stories about deities from the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara of North Dakota. Cannupa gave the framework of the warrior twins Big Medicine and Black Medicine (whom he referred to as “The One Who Checks” and “The One Who Balances”). For this show he imagined them as spirit guides who returned to the material plane to remind those who know, those who read the signs that it’s time for us to address our environment + social injustices. Cannupa and Cheyenne spent a day dressed in the regalia Cannupa and his mom, Kathy Whitman made for spirit beings as they went about their day engaging in acts of civil disobedience with the infrastructure of the extractive fossil fuel industry, getting food from a local trading post and getting gas from another trading post. A day in the life with the hero archetypes…
Lazy Stitch
tintype photo by kali spitzer with the beaded portrait created by cannupa + various communities collaborating with the project by making clay beads.
jesse hazelip pasteups of bomber buffaloes
decorated ceramic buffalo skulls + barbed wire sculpture by cannupa + jesse
rope performance by 1000 tiny mirrors
the warrior twins battling the extractive fossil fuels industry beast
Limited edition (50), hand-pulled screen print “spirits in a material world.” One hundred percent of sales from the first 25 prints sold (at $50/print) resulted in $1250 being donated to the National Women’s Association of Canada. They state on their website “…The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) has worked for more than four decades to document the systemic violence impacting Indigenous women, girls, their families, and communities. From 2005 to 2010, NWAC’s Sisters In Spirit (SIS) Initiative confirmed 582 cases of missing and/or murdered Indigenous women and girls over a span of twenty years and worked to raise awareness of this human rights issue. ” The remaining 25 prints will be sold through Justseeds.org.
jetsonorama 