CHARLESTON, SC.- The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston presents an exhibition of work by Sičáŋǧu Lakota visual artist and independent curator Dyani White Hawk entitled Hear Her. The exhibition is on view from January 14 to February 26, 2022 at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art’s galleries.
Dyani White Hawk’s work illuminates society’s consistent ignorance of Native people. With her video, photography, and works in other media, she aims to use the language of visual art to bring light to the deep chasm between our understanding of history and the truth. Her work weaves together forms from the canon of Western art along with the visual languages and traditions of Native people. In doing so, her work spotlights Native women, whose strength and fortitude over centuries have helped their peoples’ languages and cultures to survive.
On view in Hear Her, White Hawk’s video installation LISTEN presents a series of Native women speaking the language of their people. Each film takes place on the land of each participant’s nation, and viewers hear the respective languages without translation. As such, White Hawk puts a focus not only on the resonance of each speaker, but she also reveals society’s collective ignorance of the people, culture, and language of those native to the land on which we live.
White Hawk’s photography installation I Am Your Relative confronts the gross stereotypes and distorted caricatures that dehumanize and commodify Native women. The exhibition serves as a true locus for the convergence of multiple Humanities including the visual arts, language, human geography, and history, all working in sync to give visibility to the invisible and fill a vital gap in our collective knowledge.
Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) is a visual artist and independent curator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. White Hawk earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011) and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008). She served as Gallery Director and Curator for the All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis from 2011-2015.
Support for White Hawk’s work has included a 2021 Anonymous Was A Woman Award, 2020 Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Minnesota Art Prize, 2019 United States Artists Fellowship in Visual Art, 2019 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, 2019 Forecast Public Art Mid-Career Professional Development grant, 2018 Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists, 2017 and 2015 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowships, and 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. She has participated in residencies in Australia, Russia, and Germany. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Denver Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Tweed Museum of Art, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center among other public and private collections. She is represented by Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis.
