Ojibwe Stonework Relationships: Emplacements, Ensembles of Relation & Indigenous Knowledge

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-21 - Aesthetic and Cultural Learning in Museums and Public Spaces

Abstract

I explore Anishinaabe artist Duane Goodwin’s stonework, Sacred Dish, which entails complex ecological and ontological relationships to place, community, family, spirituality and storytelling. Additionally I explore Goodwin’s works as nodes of survivance (Vizenor, 2008) and as emplacements (Foucault, 1986). I demonstrate positive differences and correspondences while examining the limitations of Western conceptual theories when attending to Indigenous worldviews, creative processes and products. The purpose of this study is to explore how Goodwin’s relationships among historical and contemporary contexts, with materials, and his art processes are ontological and influence his artworks.

Author

• Kevin R. Slivka, University of Northern Colorado