Zhegagoynak, the place now known as Chicagoland, is a vital center for Indigenous art, past and present.
This winter, The Block will celebrate the region’s Indigenous creativity with a major exhibition, Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland
Through the collaboration of four artists with connections to Zhegagoynak—Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church(Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) —Woven Being explores confluences that continue to shape Indigenous creative practices in the region and beyond.
Chicagoland is the traditional homeland of the people of the Council of Three Fires— the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa—as well as the Menominee, Miami, Ho-Chunk, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois nations. It has been a longstanding cultural and economic hub for Indigenous peoples and continues to be today. People from many Indigenous nations call the region home, and the city of Chicago has the third-largest urban Indigenous population in the United States. The richness of Indigenous experiences and contributions are often excluded from Chicago’s art histories. Woven Being counters this by centering the ideas, choices, and voices of Indigenous artists.
"How does our understanding of Chicago change when seen through Indigenous perspectives? This exhibition helps shift views about the place Chicagoans call home by revealing Indigenous stories that have been erased or omitted from mainstream narratives."
Image: Andrea Carlson, The Indifference of Fire, 2023.
– Jordan Poorman Cocker (Kiowa, Terra Foundation Guest Co-Curator
The exhibition presents more than 80 artworks by 33 artists active from the mid-20th century to today and includes multiple newly commissioned works. “Just as a black ash basket is given form through the interweaving of many splints, Woven Being was developed through an in-depth collaboration with and between these artists and The Block’s project team,” says Poorman Cocker.
This artist-centered approach has resulted in a distinctive exhibition where the artists have shaped a context for their work amid works by other artists of their choosing. Together, the artworks highlight the shared aesthetics, materials, values, communities, and relations of the interconnected artists. The themes of land and waterways, kinship with plants and animals, and Indigenous concepts of time likewise connect the exhibition’s artworks and stories.
“These perspectives are central to understanding Chicago’s specific cultural landscape. While our focus is on Indigenous artists of this place, we are also recognizing how they are interconnected with art and artists across the entirety of North America. Woven Being is just one of many stories that could be told about Indigenous art in the Chicagoland region. We want people to walk away recognizing that there’s a lot more to experience and many ways to do that,” added Kathleen Bickford Berzock, exhibition co-curator and Block Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs.
"The assignment for us, the organizing artists, was to choose art and artists who've inspired our own works. The resulting exhibition locates our chosen artists and artworks as a network of influence that happens to culminate in and around Chicago. Woven Being has tangents, unexpected artists who aren't even Native, and diverse materiality and forms because artists cast a wide net when it comes to where we draw inspiration."
– Andrea Carlson, collaborating artist
