Roots
August 21 -through November 22, 2008

This exhibition is a collaborative effort inspired by the RELATIONS dialogue that took place two years ago at the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum. Those discussions between artists and scholars explored tribal identity, with the intention of creating a more honest contemporary and internal indigenous forum of artists offering the opportunity to discuss issues beyond economic, historic or romantic presentations of identity.
The ROOTS exhibition focuses on the lodge or dwelling place where humanity’s connection to the environment might be redirected and skillfully maintained in the future. Participants of ROOTS have been invited to explore how we are related to the natural world, what our place might be, and how we could sustain ourselves in a more meaningful way.
The primary hub of the statement is a large dome with twenty four doors, each offering entryway into a symbolic enclosed space representing the origins or womb of all life. Artists are asked to anonymously create one of the doors, in order to create a vision that has grown out of a group of indigenous peoples who share critical environmental concerns. The concept of ROOTS takes a step forward by asking for international indigenous participation in the making of these entryways.