LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT AT THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART SUNRISE/SUNSET CURATION BY CHRISTIANE PAUL

“AMELIA WINGER-BEARSKIN’S SKY/WORLD DEATH/WORLD COMBINES ANIMATIONS AND POETIC TEXT CONNECTING SUNRISE AND SUNSET TO INDIGENOUS CREATION MYTHS. THE SKY/WORLD OF SUNRISE REFERENCES THE HAUDENOSAUNEE ORIGIN STORY OF SKY WOMAN WHO BELONGED TO THE SKY PEOPLE, A TRIBE ROOTED IN THE CELESTIAL HEAVENS BEFORE THE WORLD WAS CREATED. AFTER FALLING THROUGH A HOLE CREATED BY AN UPROOTED TREE, SKY WOMAN CREATES A HOME ON EARTH OUT OF THE OCEANS AND MUD WITH THE HELP OF ANIMALS. WINGER-BEARSKIN PAIRS ABSTRACT ANIMATIONS OF DAWN CREATED IN A GAME ENGINE WITH THE QUESTION “WHO BENEFITS FROM YOUR BURNOUT?,” USING IT AS A PROMPT FOR REFLECTING ON THE SHARING OF LIFE. THE DEATH/WORLD OF SUNSET ASKS THE QUESTION “WHAT IS MADE BRIGHT BY THE LOSS OF YOUR LIGHT?” AND HINTS AT THE THIN VEIL BETWEEN SLEEP AND DEATH WHILE EVOKING RENEWAL. THE ACCOMPANYING ANIMATION MIXES ABSTRACT VISUALS WITH A VIDEO CLIP OF THE ARTIST HERSELF THAT ONCE WAS PART OF ONE OF HER ARTWORKS. THE WORK HAD DISAPPEARED, AND THE FOOTAGE WAS RECOVERED FROM THE INTERNET ARCHIVE, A TESTAMENT TO BOTH THE EPHEMERALITY OF DIGITAL WORK AND THE POTENTIAL OF RECOVERY. THE QUESTIONS RAISED IN SKY/WORLD DEATH/WORLD WERE ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY WINGER-BEARSKIN FOR A SERIES OF BILLBOARDS BY THE ARTIST COLLECTIVE FOR FREEDOMS OF WHICH SHE IS A MEMBER.” - CHRISTIANE PAUL, CURATORIAL STATEMENT FOR SUNRISE/SUNSET DECEMBER 2022

SKY WORLD /CLOUD WORLD a series of projects where I am examining the sacred nature of our 'cloud'-based communications. SKY WORLD/CLOUD WORLD tries to understand 'the cloud' as both a spiritual place and a vehicle for the ephemeral way in which we choose to communicate with our kin over distance and time. This concept of the cloud in web-based applications has interrupted our notion of a SKY WORLD/CLOUD WORLD which is the grand connective tissue all humans have with one another. We must maintain and honor our SKY WORLD/CLOUD WORLD, the layer of the sky which protects our world maintains our atmosphere, and which has given us the ability to communicate through invisible signals through satellites, tubes, and more importantly through dreams and imagination.

The project includes the website: Honor Native Sky a lo-fi static website toolkit that can serve as a conversational means of teaching about honoring native land, this is developed for the USDAC: Honor Native Land.  There is also a web takeover project for a museum website, videos, music works, collaborations, and events in the summer and spring of 2023.

This project was made possible in part by the generous support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Sundance Institute in collaboration with MASSMoCA.