Reflection (Valaria Tatera's Lawrence Installation)

    Regrettably, I missed the artist talk (due to a busy day and a slip of the brain... alas being a faulty human can be so frustrating). However, I did do a bunch of online research reading articles and watching videos about Valaria Tatera (links below), as well as visiting the installation, so my reflection will be on that:

    The best resource I found was Valaria Tatera's website, which I highly recommend checking out. In it, she says, "[m]y approach to sculpture is process orientated, incorporating the tradition of production into an object," and idea that is reflected in the 'process' section of her portfolio. A series of photos lay bare the different stages of the process, just as the 'finished' works, through repetition of individual elements, visually reveals the length of the proce
ss. She seems to play with time and temporality, with the ribbons of "Justice MMIGW" providing a visual tactility that pulls one into the immediate present, while also making clear the process it took to get there (to cut each ribbon, to drape them individually so each shines uniquely). The intentionality is clear and stunning.

    This conflicting temporal element goes unnoticed in everyday life: as McLuhan in The Medium is the Massage puts it, “[e]lectric circuitry has overthrown the regime of “time” and “space” and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men" (16). While this book does have problems targeting an audience of 'men,'  the general concept is present, and arguably more nuanced and impactful, in Tatera's work: engagement with present day movements (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirits) that are rooted in an entire history of injustice and generational trauma that has been obscured as 'in the past'.

 

https://www.instagram.com/valariatatera_art/

 

(Resources I used for more info on Valaria Tatera:)

https://consortium.gws.wisc.edu/conference/artist-exhibition/valaria-tatera/

https://www.valariatatera.com/work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXrHah28tIg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpeNhNSvD1Y

https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/arts/2019/09/04/milwaukee-artist-honors-missing-and-murdered-native-american-women/1401230001/

 

 


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