Crow artist Wendy Red Star set for historic debut on National Mall

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A rendering of “The Soil You See” by Wendy Red Star is part of the “Beyond Granite: Pulling Together” exhibition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Image courtesy Trust for the National Mall

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

By Acee Agoyo

Indianz.Com

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An artist from the Crow Tribe is making history with a groundbreaking exhibition in the nation’s capital.

Wendy Red Star, who was raised on the Crow Reservation in Montana, is one of six artists participating in Beyond Granite. The initiative’s inaugural installation opens to the public here on Friday — and it’s the first curated outdoor exhibition of its kind in the history of the National Mall.

Red Star’s contribution to the landmark project is titled The Soil You See… Situated in the Constitution Gardens alongside the famed Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the work draws attention to the nation-to-nation relationship between her tribe and the United States government.

Wendy Red Star. Photo courtesy Trust for the National Mall

A rendering of The Soil You See… shows an iconic monument featuring a red-colored human fingerprint. The piece contains the names of the Crow chiefs who signed treaties with the U.S. government, a legal and political relationship that dates to 1825.

Nearby Red Star’s work is the Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence, also in Constitution Gardens. That founding document of the U.S. contains a notorious description of Native peoples as “merciless Indian Savages.”

“So it’s a red thumbprint,” Red Star says in a artist preview for the inaugural installation. “Immediately people will be drawn to it just for that.”

“And then to have them encounter the work and get to read the names of chiefs from my community who have signed treaties from 1825 to 1880 — and they’re so different than the names that you see on the Declaration of Independence,” Red Star continues.

Beyond Granite: Pulling Together Artist Preview – Wendy Red Star

So with Red Star’s participation in the inaugural exhibit, titled Beyond Granite: Pulling Together, organizers hope to spark responses to a key question: “What stories remain untold on the National Mall?”

“I hope Beyond Granite: Pulling Together sparks important, and sometimes hard conversations in living rooms, classrooms, sidewalks, and beyond, about our collective experience and history as Americans,” Teresa Durkin, the executive vice president of the Trust for the National Mall, said in a news release.

“These new installations are opening the doors to a deeper and more meaningful dialogue about what stories we should pass on to the next generation,” said Durkin.

Beyond Granite: Pulling Together Site Map

A site map for the “Beyond Granite: Pulling Together” exhibition shows the location (3) of Wendy Red Star’s contribution near the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Image courtesy Trust for the National Mall

Beyond Granite marks the efforts of a long-running relationship between the Trust for the National Mall, the leading nonprofit and nonpartisan philanthropic partner of the National Park Service (NPS), a federal agency. The National Capital Planning Commission, another U.S. government entity, is part of the exhibition as well.

The NPS, for the first time in U.S. history, is run by a Native person — Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, serves as the director. And the agency is part of the Department of the Interior, which is led by Secretary Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna who is the first Native person in a presidential cabinet.

Following the opening of Beyond Granite: Pulling Together on Friday, Red Star will participate in a public talk next week, on August 25. The event, titled “Indigenous Archives Conversation,” takes place at the United States Institute of Peace Headquarters. It features Dr. Elizabeth Rule, an author and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.

The exhibition runs through September 18. It is funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Behind the Scenes with Wendy Red Star

Courtesy photos

Artist Biography – Wendy Red Star

An artist biography of Wendy Red Star for the “Beyond Granite: Pulling Together” exhibition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Source: Trust for the National Mall

Beyond Granite: Pulling Together