A distinctly Indigenous form of landscape representation is emerging among contemporary Indigenous artists from North America. For centuries, landscape painting in European art typically used representational strategies such as single-point perspective to lure viewers-and settlers-into the territories of the old and new worlds. In the twentieth century, abstract expressionism transformed painting to encompass something beyond the visual world, and, later, minimalism and the Land Art movement broadened the genre of landscape art to include sculptural forms and site-specific installations.

In Shifting Grounds, art historian Kate Morris argues that Indigenous artists are expanding and reconceptualizing the forms of the genre, expressing Indigenous attitudes toward land and belonging even as they draw upon mainstream art practices. The resulting works evoke all five senses: from the overt sensuality of Kay WalkingStick's tactile paintings to the eerie soundscapes of Alan Michelson's videos to the immersive environments of Kent Monkman's dioramas, this art resonates with a fully embodied and embedded subjectivity. Shifting Grounds explores themes of presence and absence, survival and vulnerability, memory and commemoration, and power and resistance, illuminating the artists' engagement not only with land and landscape but also with the history of representation itself.

Foregrounds the importance of landscape within twenty-first-century Indigenous art

About the Author

Kate Morris is professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Santa Clara University.

Reviews

"[Morris's] excellent in-depth analysis of two case studies may provide a starting point for future broader discussions and analyses of landscape and the themes she identifies with contemporary indigenous work. . ."

* Choice *

"[S]ignificant contribution to art history"

* Artblog *

"Shifting Grounds is elegantly designed and beautifully illustrated...fascinating study."

* H-Net *

"[S]ignificant interdisciplinary strides...toward uniting the fields of art history and Indigenous studies."

* Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9780295749167
Author Kate Morris
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint University of Washington Press
Publisher University of Washington Press
Weight(grams) 590g