UVI's The Caribbean Writer, in collaboration with the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, will feature a presentation by renowned American Indian Artists Edgar Heap of Birds and Shanna Ketchum Heap of Birds at The Caribbean Writer's second annual Artist Talk scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 10. The artist will speak and show slides of their art works in Room 133 of the Research and Extension Center on UVI's St. Croix campus.
The Caribbean Writer promises an engaging evening, one that will explore ways to approach collaborative art projects, and provide techniques to re-look and re-interpret the works of artists. The program should prove informative for local artists and would be artists, art teachers, high school students and anyone interested in public art and American Indian cosmology.
Edgar Heap of Birds' work
includes multi-disciplinary forms of public art messages, large
scale drawings, the Neuf Series of acrylic paintings, prints, works
in glass and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor
sculpture. His talk is entitled "Being a Global Citizen and Sharing
Native History and Art Across the World." It will explore
collaborative art projects, which he has undertaken, in Australia,
Africa, the U.S. and Canada, primarily focusing upon working with
indigenous populations, on shared-earth awareness and challenges to
colonial power. Edgar Heap of Birds will also highlight his
50-foot, red outdoor porcelain and steel Medicine Wheel solstice
sculpture, which is located at the Denver Art Museum. "Wheel" was
inspired by the traditional medicine wheel used in the Big Horn
Mountains of Wyoming. In addition, he will discuss his 2007 Venice
Biennale public art intervention project entitled "Most Serene
Republics."
Edgar Heap of Birds is a professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He hosts seminars that explore issues of the contemporary artist and native philosophy on local, national and international levels. He has served as a visiting lecturer in England, Western Samoa, Thailand, South Africa, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Zimbabwe, Italy, Australia, India, China and Dine College, Navajo Nation, as well as a visiting professor at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., and Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Lila Wallace Foundation, the Bonfil Stanton Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Shanna Ketchum Heap of Birds,
art historian and a lecturer in the Native American Studies Program
at the University of Oklahoma, will give a talk entitled
"Transcultural Space in Context: The Art of Diego Romero." She will
examine Romero's work and offer viewers a fresh way of seeing the
"familiar" by engaging in challenging cultural critiques, which are
constructed from a self-consciously native perspective.
Shanna Ketchum Heap of Birds, has been published in important journals including, "Sam Durant: America's Founding Myth Reconsidered," in The Hugo Boss Prize 2008.
The evening will include time for the audience to question the presenters. Light refreshments will be served. For more information call (340) 692-4152 or send e-mail to: info@thecaribbeanwriter.org.