Lecture by Dylan Miner
Dylan Miner's talk, 'Jiimaanike miiniwaa Manashkikiiwe (S/he Builds a Canoe and Gathers Medicine)', will focus on his current art practice, and socially-engaged collaborations with youth. Miner will use the metaphor of lowriding as an Indigenous ontonology to situate Anishnaabensag Biimskowebshkigewag (Native Kids Ride Bikes), an on-going project that brings together Indigenous youth in middle and high school, non-Native university students, and Indigenous artists to construct lowrider bicycles based on Indigenous teachings, such as Niizhwaaswi G’mishomisinaanig (Our Seven Grandfathers). These seven core values include concepts such as Nbwaakaawin (Wisdom), Zaagi’idiwin (Love), Minaadendamowin (Respect), Aakwa’ode’ewin (Bravery), Debwewin (Truth), Dibaadendiziwin (Humility), and Gwekwaadiziwin (Honesty). Working collaboratively, the lowrider bicycles became the impetus to explore issues of migration, mobility, labor, economics, individual and collective identity, as well as community history for Indigenous youth. Miner will also discuss other projects, including Michif-Michin (the people, the medicine), Gikinawaabi (Learning to Labour, Learning to Listen, Learning to Sing),Tikibiing Booskikamigaag (Spring Grove).
DYLAN MINER (Métis) is Associate Professor at Michigan State University, where he coordinates a new Indigenous contemporary art initiative and is adjunct curator of Indigenous Art at the MSU Museum. In 2010, he was awarded an Artist Leadership Fellowship from the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution). Since 2010, he has been featured in more than fourteen solo exhibitions and been artist-in-residence at institutions such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, École supérieure des beaux-arts in Nantes, Klondike Institute of Art and Culture, Rabbit Island, Santa Fe Art Institute, and numerous universities and art schools. His book Creating Aztlán: Chicano Art, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Lowriding Across Turtle Island was published this month by the University of Arizona Press. In the next year, he will hang solo exhibitions in Montreal and Winnipeg, while Anishinaabensag Biimskowbeshkigewag (Native Kids Ride Bikes) is at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis through January 2014.
Dylan Miner's talk is part of the English 398 Space and Site class, and co-sponsored by the Department of English, The Stamps School of Art and Design, the Institute for the Humanities, and the Department of American Culture/Native American Culture.
