The experience of time, especially as it relates to memory, is often more dimensional and complex than the straight progression that it gets billed as in most Western cultures. But many Indigenous concepts of time are cyclical and interconnected, offering deeper nuance and relationship between past and present.
The latest exhibition at Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, “Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time,” is a 27-piece art show of works by contemporary Native American, Alaska Native, First Nations, and Métis artists that explore the complex layers of past, present, and future. The groundbreaking works, many of which have never been shown on the East Coast, comes from the collections of Art Bridges, the Forge Project, and the Gochman Family Collection.
“‘Smoke in Our Hair’ will be the first exhibition in the Hudson River Museum’s 106-year history to explore memory and time through the perspectives of contemporary Native artists,” explains director and CEO of Hudson River Museum, Masha Turchinsky.
Until August 31, attendees can view the exhibit from independent curator Sháńdíín Brown (Diné), a Ph.D. student at Yale, and a member of the Navajo Nation from Arizona.
Wood, Fire, and Smoke
The exhibition’s title comes from the poem “Smoke in Our Hair” by Ofelia Zepeda (Tohono O’odham). In the text, the poet writes “Smoke, like memories, permeates our hair.” The lingering campfire scent that impregnates all that it touches is a beautiful and accessible analogy reminding us that past experiences stay with us long after they are over, shaping us in a way that continues to affect our present and future.
“Poetry was a guiding force in shaping the themes of this exhibition, particularly ‘Smoke in Our Hair’ and ‘Memory Sack’ by Joy Harjo (Mvskoke),” explains Brown. “Together, art and writing offer crucial ways to explore Native perspectives on existence and remembrance, inviting us to contemplate our understandings of time, memory, and identity.”
The exhibition is organized into three main sections—wood, fire, and smoke. Each gallery uncovers different elements of cycles. Media in the exhibit is diverse and includes installation, sculpture, painting, and textile.
Cara Romero’s black and white photograph Sand and Stone shows a woman submerged in the crackled desert sand. Only her face, hair, and hands are unburied, and her gaze is directed at the camera, prompting the viewer to consider whether she is emerging or returning to the earth.
In Nicholas Galanin’s multimedia White Flag, a taxidermied polar bear is mounted to a crude flag pole, with only the upper half of its body intact and flattened into a rectangular, flaglike form. The artist notes that the bear was turned into a rug in the 1920s by a sport hunter of European descent. Though the term “white flag” is synonymous with surrender, the fierce expression of the polar bear, as it grips the tree branch in its jaws, redefines the meaning. The work evokes themes of climate change and colonialism.
Time can shape how the past is remembered or reimagined. In “Smoke in Our Hair,” the artists grapple with and occupy the interstitial space between those who came before them and those who will come after.
On March 9 at 2pm, Sháńdíín Brown provides an in-depth tour of the exhibition, free for attendees with general admission tickets.
