Experience OTEC At The Queens Museum
Of the Earth: Connections
This exhibition considers how Indigenous artists from across the world have centered both water and the earth in their practices through storytelling, video, photography, sculpture, and cultural traditions. Multivocal Indigenous viewpoints illustrate environmental stewardship as a locus of kinship and life, mapping a philosophical interrelationship between global Indigenous communities.
Of The Earth: Connections is a project by Shane Weeks, a recipient of the Indigenous Practice Studio (IPS) commission at the Queens Museum. For his commission, Weeks chose nine Indigenous artists who honor cultural customs and privilege ancestral expertise in relation to the climate crisis wrought by colonial and capitalist mistreatment of the land. Through traditional practices such as carving, burning, weaving, molding, and beading, the artworks in this exhibition speak to water and land as resources, pathways, and lifeforces that demand respect. Weeks writes that “due largely to colonization, most of our society has become disconnected to our direct environments and the beings that are a part of them.”
These artworks are presented around The Relief Map of New York City Water Supply System, 1939, a topographical model that traces the water system and its paths that transport over a billion gallons of fresh water to New York City every day. Built for the 1939–1940 New York World’s Fair, The Relief Map illustrates the City’s relationship with its surrounding rural regions' ecosystems and domestic infrastructure. By putting artworks by Indigenous artists in relation to The Relief Map, this exhibition both globalizes and indigenizes conversations about water and land preservation, connectivity, and conservation.
Artists:
Shane Weeks, Shinnecock (Curator)
Denice Banks, Te'po'ta'ahl, Salinan
Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Samoan
Koyoltzintli, Ecuador
Inna & Viktor Iadne, Nenets
Shannyn Weeks, Shinnecock
Chenae Bullock, Shinnecock
Tecumseh Ceaser, Matinecock/Unkechaug
A Special Thanks:
Shane Weeks would like to thank: All collaborating artists, Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, Harry Wallace, Michael Cause, Robin & Tracy Weeks, Queens Museum staff, Metoac Indigenous Collective, and Wamme Neetompaog.
The People That Made It Happen!
Of the Earth: Connections is presented as part of the Indigenous Practice Studio (IPS) Commissioning Program. The program is organized in partnership with Tecumseh Ceaser, artist and cultural consultant and Eva Mayhabal Davis, cultural advocate and curator, together with Queens Museum staff members. Curatorial support is provided by Lindsey Berfond, Assistant Curator and Studio Program Manager and Sarah Cho, Assistant Curator.
Audio descriptions narrated by Sarah Cho, Assistant Curator, can be found on the Queens Museum Digital Guide, available for free on Bloomberg Connects.
This exhibition was produced in cooperation with the Queens Museum team: Hayley Blackstone, Mayisha Hassan, Grace Paola Halio, Lynn Maliszewski, Aaron Strauss, and Caslon Yoon; Queens Museum fabricators and preparators: Max Bell, B Hayden, Leaf Quilty, Sam Lasko; and Full Point Graphics.
The Relief Map of New York City’s Water System is on long-term loan from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The Indigenous Practice Studio is made possible with support from the New York Community Trust.