Indigenous geometries
in collaboration with Tanya Lukin Linklater
2019
7’ tall, 8’11” in diameter
cold rolled steel, laminated ash, paint, matte polyurethane, hardware
….and other such stories
September 19, 2019 - Jan 5, 2020
Chicago Architecture Biennial
curated by Sepake Angiama
Indigenous geometries is a space for Indigenous performance. Mobile and temporary, it draws on Alutiiq (southern coastal Alaska Native) ways of life, architecture, and material culture where Lukin Linklater was born. Each modular element is composed of laminated bent-wood bars in a simple spline-like curve, referencing an Alutiiq steam-bending technique used to make visors worn during sea mammal hunting. When assembled, these parts form a geometry that recalls traditional Alutiiq semi-subterranean homes. The choice of ash wood, native to the Chicago area, pays respect to the Indigenous peoples who inhabit lands around this city. The structure will be activated in a series of performances titled A song, a felt structure: We are putting ourselves back together again. Dancers move the curved wood pieces into different configurations, speaking to the ways in which Indigenous social structures have been actively dismantled by colonial US and Canadian governments, and the continued work of Indigenous peoples toward putting their languages, families, and selves back together.
Photo: Courtesey of Chicago Architecture Biennial / Tom Harris, 2019 (top two images), and Artist (bottom two)
Excerpts of performance: A song, a felt structure; We are putting ourselves back together again, 2019 by Tanya Lukin Linklater. With Laura Ortman, Ivanie Aubin-Malo and Ceinwen Gobert. Camera and edit by Neven Lochhead