NICHOLAS GALANIN: INTERFERENCE PATTERNS AT SITE SANTA FE

Utilizing numerous materials and processes, Galanin continues to build a vast creative vocabulary, reflecting on and speaking to the world from an Indigenous perspective.

Interference Patterns presents a selection of sculptures, installations, and videos celebrating Indigenous knowledge and continuum challenging the legacies and consequences of colonization and occupation. A newly commissioned interactive installation, Neon American Anthem (red), invites audiences to participate in a cathartic release of sound and breath as a warranted response to legislated violence and oppression by the United States on those inside and outside its borders.

Galanin’s work boldly and intentionally disrupts colonial narratives and fictions by centering Indigenous perspectives at the intersection of Land and Water, cultural erasure, forced assimilation, natural and forced migration, environmental violence, and climate crisis with settler-colonial capitalism.

Through his multi-layered work, Galanin offers space for reflection and urgency, for interdependence and connection within diverse experiences. His work presses for change; of mind, heart, and action on a global scale.

Examining the complexities of contemporary Indigenous identity, culture, and representation, Nicholas Galanin works from his experience as a Lingít and Unangax̂ artist. Embedding incisive observation and reflection into his oftentimes provocative work, he aims to redress the widespread misappropriation of Indigenous visual culture, the impact of colonialism, as well as collective amnesia. Galanin reclaims narrative and creative agency, while demonstrating contemporary Indigenous art as a continually evolving practice.