Please join us for a series of conversations with artists and scholars working in the interdisciplinary field of critical Indigenous studies, moderated by Gallatin Faculty member Eugenia Kisin.
For the first event in the series Currents and Protocols: Conversations in Critical Indigenous Studies and Contemporary Art, photographer and Diné cultural consultant Rapheal Begay and American Museum of Natural History Postdoctoral Fellow Hadley Jensen will discuss their work on land-based and relational practices of Navajo weaving.
Jensen curated the upcoming Bard Graduate Center Focus Gallery digital exhibition Shaped by the Loom. Together, Begay and Jenson worked on the forthcoming 360 Imaging Project, a collaboration with the Gallatin WetLab, which will provide an immersive and sensory experience of the animate landscapes, sacred cosmologies, and geographic dynamics of the Navajo Nation. Charting the contours of what virtual space can be, this project foregrounds reciprocity efforts, making this documentation accessible and relevant to descendent communities whose past, present, and future homelands we inhabit.
Rapheal Begay is a visual storyteller based in the capital of the Navajo Nation. Through photography and curatorial initiatives, he intends to culturally express and creatively advocate for understanding and teaching found in the Diné way of life. In 2017, he obtained his BFA in Art Studio with a minor in Arts Management and Undergraduate Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of New Mexico. Named by Southwest Contemporary as one of 12 New Mexico Artists to Know in 2020, Begay is the recipient of the 2021-2022 Goodman Aspiring Artist Fellowship and works as a Public Information Officer with the Navajo Nation Division of Human Resources Administration in Window Rock, Arizona.
Hadley Jensen’s research addresses the intersections among art, anthropology, and material culture. She is a Research Fellow in Southwest Modernism at the Lunder Institute for American Art (2021-2022) and a Research Associate in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. Her current exhibition and book project, Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest, foregrounds the land-based and relational practices of Navajo weaving. As a collaboration between Bard Graduate Center and the American Museum of Natural History, it will launch online in Spring 2022, and at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe in Summer 2023. In addition, she has hands-on experience learning Indigenous weaving and natural dyeing practices, which has strengthened and enlivened her work as an academic researcher, curator, and teacher.
Co-sponsored by NYU Gallatin and Bard Graduate Center.
Upcoming lectures in the Currents and Protocols Series:
Teresa Montoya on November 9
Raven TwoFeathers November 23
New York University and Gallatin provide accommodations to people living with disabilities who wish to attend events at the School, whether in person or virtually. To request accommodations or should you have questions regarding accessibility for an event, please contact Gallatin’s Office of Special Events by emailing [email protected].
