This Art Walk Elevates Dakota History

 

OZY    A Modern Media Company Share This Sh*t           December 16, 2022 THIS ART WALK ELEVATES DAKOTA HISTORY Native American artist Marlena Mykes is turning her Dakota homelands into an AR gallery space, fusing history and tradition with technology.   Hidden in Plain Sight Bobby Twidale from Excelsior MN @bobby-twidale   I climb the steep path from the visitor center at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska to the Harrison Sculpture Garden, keeping one eye on the blue arrow on my phone’s screen. It’s leading me through a riot of fall color to a stone circle at the highest point in the parkland. I’m not here for the stone circle or the sculpture sitting in it — there’s nothing concrete indicating what I’m about to experience. This is the first stop on Dakota Sacred Hoop Walk, the latest work by Spirit Lake Dakota artist Marlena Myles. Myles’ new work — like her other public art installation, “Dakota Spirit Walk,” in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota — is an augmented reality (AR) experience. Myles wanted a way to share her ancestors’ connection to Minnesota landscapes, and their history, language and culture, without making any physical impact on the environment itself. The answer came from an unexpected source: an interactive game. “I saw Pokemon Go and I thought: ‘People are really having a good time going outside and looking at their neighborhood in a different way.’ When I look at the land, I see Dakota spirits and connections. I thought I could do something similar,” she explains. AR made sense. Via a smartphone app, her art and storytelling come together in locations significant to Dakota people to create an immersive installation. This new piece explores the Sacred Hoop, in Dakota doctrine a metaphor for the circle of life. When finished in spring 2023, the walk will lead visitors to five familiar Arboretum landmarks, revealing Dakota wisdom hidden beneath the surface. At the stone circle, I scan the information board with my phone, then step inside. Wóȟpe, the Dakota spirit of harmony, rises ahead of me. Seen through my phone screen, she is as vibrant as the colors of the landscape around her but ephemeral, like the warm breeze making the leaves dance. Through my headphones, Wóhpe’s voice narrates the lessons of the circle and introduces its other inhabitants, the Dakota spirits of the four compass points. It is an immersive experience but I remain fully present in the setting.

Translating the Modern Landscape into Dakota  Artwork by Marlena Myles Myles is a self-taught artist, and uses graphic design software to incorporate the colorful geometric designs — abstract and figurative — typical of Dakota art into her own vibrant pieces. Hundreds of layers are fused digitally, creating the images she uses in prints, murals, books, fabrics and animations. This was less a departure from tradition, more a continuance of her culture, she explains, which has always embraced innovation. Her art “translates modern places into Dakota.” A self-declared activist, she’s always been interested in the power of art to communicate important messages. She wanted to use her work to celebrate Native American culture and oral traditions of her community, and to tell the history of the land through a Dakota perspective. Myles thought Minnesotan people from all backgrounds should see images that represent her culture in public spaces. Raised in Little Earth, a Native American community in Minneapolis, Myles felt a disconnect between what her schoolmates saw in the land around them and the meanings she perceived beneath its surface. “I never really saw anything in Minneapolis that showed this was Dakota homelands,” she says, adding, “They lived here their whole life, and it never occurred to them they were speaking Dakota when they said: ‘I'm from Minnesota.’” In 2014, she started working as a gallery attendant, then graphic designer, at All My Relations, a Native American art space in Minneapolis. She used the opportunity to “see what other professional artists were doing.” But it was in 2019 that Myles really began to realize the potential of her work. “It wasn’t until I created the Dakota Land Map that I saw it become impactful, not just in museums or gallery spaces but in public spaces, schools and businesses,” she says. The map, she says, “tells the story of the past, present and future of Dakota people,” with locations throughout the Twin Cities identified by their Dakota names — Isánthanka Mazóphiye Thánka (Mall of America), Mnísota Wóunspe Wakántuya (the University of Minnesota) — and locations of significance to her people, such as burial mounds, clearly marked. The mapping is ongoing, with the latest, the Minnesota River Valley, published in early December. I don't want people to always engage with Native art in a museum space, because that puts us as ‘antiques’ — it doesn't put our stories on the land. I want to create things that make nature into something that you can experience in a deeper way.  - Marlena Myles      Myles is now an established and award-winning artist. Her work can be seen in public spaces and in prestigious galleries such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Red Cloud Heritage Center and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. In 2021, she launched her publishing house, Wíyouŋkihipi (We Are Capable) Productions: “A platform for Dakota voices to publish and pass on teachings to future generations.” Following the success of her first AR work, Myles began conceptualizing “Dakota Sacred Hoop Walk.” She reached out once again to the team that brought the Saint Paul installation to life: Todd Boss, creator of the Revelo AR app, and Jeff Stevens, creative director at Pixel Farm. Revelo AR uses AR and geolocation to create virtual gallery spaces for artists. “Augmented reality ‘places’ art that you view through your phones,” Myles explains. “It’s a great piece of technology because it doesn’t disturb sites.” Pixel Farm brought their technical genius to the table. Creative director, Stevens, shares his vision: “We came up with this concept of using geolocation-based augmented reality, which means anywhere in the world you can use geolocation which says: ‘I am here at this spot and now I get to see something’ — like a museum, but now it’s interactive.” Next, Myles needed a new location. In a happy coincidence, Wendy DePaolis, curator of art and sculpture at the Arboretum, had already contacted Myles, looking to collaborate. “I’m always on the lookout for artists who match our mission to connect people to the environment through art,” DePoalis says. The sculpture garden proved an intuitive fit for the first stop of “Dakota Sacred Hoop Walk.” Myles says, “To Dakota people the highest place in the land is a place of power, where your voice can reach further places and so I wanted to create at this spot.” “I don't want people to always engage with Native art in a museum space, because that puts us as ‘antiques’ — it doesn't put our stories on the land. I want to create things that make nature into something that you can experience in a deeper way.” Wóhpe had found her home. DePaolis admits Myles’ work left a big impression. "I was astounded by the way she transformed a land and space I thought I knew so well. I will never look at High Point in the same way," she says.

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A New Frontier for Art  Marlena Myles The possibilities this technology opens up for artists are mind-blowing, and Myles is keen to pass on her knowledge by mentoring up-and-coming Native American artists. Local Lakota artist Olawan Un Wicawiyun Winyan, known as Delaena Uses Knife, has a visual style that channels the graphics of Disney and Pixar. Like her mentor, she has an eye on educating future generations and wants to use her illustrations in books for children. From Myles, she’s learning how to develop animated 3D AR sequences and to navigate her way around the commercial side of the art business. Shared experience brought the two artists together. “She wanted me to help her create work where she can speak about how contemporary Lakota people are living in Rapid City,” says Myles: “I want to show her as much as I can.” We can tell stories that aren't often told, but also expose people to literally see somebody else's worldview.  - Wicanhpi Iyotan Win Autumn Cavender      Wicanhpi Iyotan Win Autumn Cavender is an artist, midwife and Dakota language and decolonization advocate from the Pezutazizi K’api Upper Sioux Community in Minnesota. Activism is in her blood, as her grandfather and mother are both internationally renowned Indigenous genocide scholars. But, as she puts it, she found “a different path forward to do the same kind of work.” She embarked on a journey into the traditional art of her ancestors, starting with an apprenticeship in porcupine quill working, a discipline in which the quills are washed, dyed, flattened and then used for artwork — wrapped, appliqued onto fabric or leather, and used in weaving. During the pandemic, Cavender started to use artificial intelligence to interface audio with geometric design. “I developed a process I called generative quillwork,” says Cavender. “I input audio files into a program, and it generates a base image that looks like quilled wrap work. By manipulating that image, I get these really crazy patterns.” “I now have the capacity to plug in traditional audios, including melodies without lyrics, and get back things that are essential to the content or origin story of that song,” she says. Like Myles, the opportunity to immerse people in a culture that co-exists, unseen, alongside their own is seductive. “We can tell stories that aren't often told, but also expose people to literally see somebody else's worldview,” Cavender explains. “We always bring baggage with us, and it's the lens through which we see. When we're forced into seeing something very different, we can't revert to that filter we put on the world. The reality we're experiencing is different from what we've been programmed to see.” The first stop of “Dakota Sacred Hoop Walk” is live now. Tickets are available, with free entry for Native American visitors, via the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum ticketing line: 612-301-6775.

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