Creation with her children, 2017

Creation is carving her own face out of necessity, because it is within her power, and because it is her nature. She has cut open and is shedding the garments of 17th century Europe, revealing a more contemporary covering. The blue tarp is a contemporary cover and protection from weather, they cover tipi frames to build tarpees, they cover broken windows and doors, they are inexpensive, and readily available. Creation is always in the process of becoming. In this form she has endured hundreds of years of colonization, corporatization, commodification, and subjugation. Her children do not emerge from under her skirt, but they play at being dangerous holding mouths full of sharp teeth, their ability to play at being dangerous is a vision of what safety looks like. In this form Creation is not only shedding the cover and restraint of the dress, she is carving her own face with knife used to cut away the dress. Her head may have been cut off or burned or stolen, it may have been left to rot. But Creation is always in motion, an in this moment she has grown or secured herself a head that still wears the cover of land half wrapped in bark. She is carving her face so that she can be seen, to show a way to be for her children, so that she can see. She is carving her face because she needs to, because no one else can see her, because creation continues to be born through herself, and will carve her image new when it is destroyed, stolen, or forgotten by those who cannot see.

Nicholas Galanin & Merritt Johnson