In 2021, Monument Lab surveyed the landscape of American monuments by focusing on a study set of nearly 50,000 conventional monuments across every US state and territory. According to the National Monument Audit published after a year of collecting data, only five of the 50 most frequently depicted figures in American monuments were Black or Indigenous. The audit also found that zero US-born LatinX, Asian, Pacific Islander, or self-identified LGBTQ+ people appear in the top 50 list.
Amplify’s next virtual Alternate Currents panel discussion, Here Before: Monuments, Memory, and Place, on Monday, May 9th at 7pm CST takes a deeper dive into the monumental misrepresentations of our collective histories in public spaces and how they shape cultural norms and values.
Join Karin Campbell, Phil Willson Curator of Contemporary Art at Joslyn Art Museum; Minnesota-based artist Inkpa Mani; Brooklyn-based artist Moko Fukuyama; and Amplify’s 2022 Indigenous American Artist Support Grant recipient and Alternate Currents Working Group member, Nathaniel Ruleaux on Zoom for a closer look at the porous connections between monuments, memory, and our relationship to place.
Register here. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the discussion on Zoom after registering. And don’t forget to visit the Alternate Currents blog page to read up on the panel topic before the discussion.
www.amplifyarts.org/alternate-currents
Alternate Currents opens space for conversation, ideation, and action around national and international discussions in the arts that have a profound impact at the local level. Alternate Currents exists both on- and off-line in the form of a dedicated online resource, conversation series, and working group.
Free and open to all. Alternate Currents programming is presented with support from the Sherwood Foundation.
About the Panelists:
Karin Campbell is the Phil Willson Curator of Contemporary Art at Joslyn Art Museum. Since joining the museum in 2012, Campbell has curated several major exhibitions, including 30 Americans, Word/Play: Prints, Photographs, and Paintings by Ed Ruscha, and Sheila Hicks: Material Voices. She oversees Joslyn’s collection of postwar and contemporary art and is the principal curator for the Karen and Doug Riley Contemporary Artists Project (CAP) Gallery, the first space in the museum’s history dedicated specifically to living artists.
Campbell completed her BA in art history and political science at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA in 2006 and her MA in curatorial studies at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY in 2011. From 2006 to 2009, she served as curatorial assistant in the contemporary art department at Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, where she helped organize Life on Mars, the 55th Carnegie International. Before moving to Omaha, Campbell curated the 2011—2012 installment of Espai 13, an annual exhibition series at the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona.
Moko Fukuyama is a Japanese artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Fukuyama has received grants, fellowships and commissions from notable art institutions such as Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Foundation For Contemporary Arts, Jerome Foundation, SOHO20, MacDowell, Yaddo, Recess, The Shed, ISCP (International Studio & Curatorial Program) and more. She completed her residency at The Kitchen, New York, New York in spring 2021. During the residency, she created American Recordings, Act I: American Harvest and Act II: American Frequency in collaboration with Yo! Vinyl Richie. She was a 2021 fellow at Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, Minnesota and Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York. She recently had her solo exhibition Streaming Surface at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, New York.
Inkpa Mani is an Indigenous artist who grew up in the lands now known as Mexico and the United States and he currently lives in Wheaton, Minnesota. He earned his BFA at the University of South Dakota in 2019. Inkpa is a multi-disciplinary artist and academic. Inkpa works with paints, stone, paper, and digital media to explore his culture. His process involves community, oral histories, institutional research, and experiences to highlight the concerns and values of his people. He integrates art, history, and tradition to share new ideas of contemporary life. Inkpa shares the continuum of Indian art that has continued to evolve for thousands of years. He shares his knowledge of Native American history, art and culture and how Indigenous people have adapted to changes in social and cultural landscapes. He has worked on large scale sculptures, murals, and community-based arts in the Midwest as well as working with Dakota language education for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. Inkpa currently works at Tiospa Zina Tribal School and is earning his Business Administration degree and his Dakota Teaching Certificate form Sisseton Wahpeton College. He is currently working on a public land art project in South Dakota, a 60,000 lbs public stone sculpture in Sisseton, SD and a $450,000 public arts commission for the city of Minneapolis.
Nathaniel Ruleaux (he/him) is an award-winning artist and culture worker currently located on unceded land of the Umónhon & Očhéthi Šakówiŋ in Nebraska. A partner, father, and member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, his work combines modern art with traditional indigenous imagery. He is a founding member of Unceded Artist Collective, and sits on the board of the Omaha Area Youth Orchestras. Recently, he created work for the national Indigenous Futures Survey 2.0 campaign. In addition to creating visual art, he is a classically-trained actor and educator. He received his MFA in Theatre from the University of Houston’s School of Theatre and Dance after receiving a BA in Theatre Performance at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.