A Brief But Spectacular take on channeling identity through art

0:00Our brief but spectacular tonight comes from the Portland Oregon-based multimedia artist Wendy Redstar. She grew up on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, and her work celebrates native identity. I grew up in a pretty funny family, so that we'll often show up in the work. People might have that experience of looking at my work and feeling that it's ironic. But actually what I think is happening is I'm telling the truth. I grew up on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. What I remember was riding horses a lot with friends going to an event that is held on the reservation every year called Crow Fair, wearing regalia that my grandma would make for me and my cousins. When I was in undergrad at Montana State University, I was taking a Native Studies class.

1:02I came across this chief named, sits in the middle of the land, and he was important because he told the US government where Crow territory was, and so he said my home is where my TP sits. And then he went to place the four poles in the major migration routes that we would travel throughout the season, and that mapped out like 38 million acres, and within that was Bozeman, and so I was really comforted to know that I was on Crow territory. I wanted to make a piece that would honor that, and so I set up TPs around campus. People, images of Crow people have been a big source of inspiration for the work that I make. Finding out their name and who they were and where that photograph was taken in the context of that. Being an artist, making art culturally, it is so important.

2:06It's what we're remembered by. I need to make art, and if I don't make art, then I'm not fundamentally me, so I do know that really is important for my identity. My name is Wendy Redstar, and this is my brief but spectacular take on channeling identity through art.