Hunting for Home: Indian without Reservation at HCC Ybor

There’s no place like home, and this is the time of the year when everyone finds their way back to long-lost families to bake pies and stuff turkeys… and eventually stuff faces full of turkey. For indigenous peoples, this particular holiday is a day of mourning: where exactly is home? Displaced from your homeland, let alone your cultural identity.

In a current HCC Ybor exhibition, Stan Natchez explores how he navigates the rough terrain of traditional and contemporary life as a Native American.

Though he was raised in LA, Natchez comes from the Tataviam lineage (“the people who face the sun”). Sadly, these California Indians have lost all of their traditional ceremonies, which spurred the artist to travel across the country to study various tribes' art and dances in the search for his roots. Besides taking inspiration from his own heritage, Natchez cites Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns as influences for the Pop Art feel of his paintings.

“Couple with Dog & TeePee on $2 Bills” exemplifies how Natchez uses tropes of Native American “ledger art” to turn tradition on its head and provoke new discussions. The young lovers embrace, but here’s the kicker: They are both decked out in Americana memorabilia, from his star-studded vest to her red, white, and blue dress. Handcrafted beadwork accents the American flag on certain accessories, adding unexpected texture to the piece. This level of patriotism could easily be seen as satire, but there’s a sincerity about it that’s shaking. They seem to be content as contemporary Native Americans living in the United States, while also angry and frustrated at the continual fight for cultural freedoms and rights, which are at the whims of those in power (as seen in the foreclosed teepee in “Monopoly”).

Many of the backgrounds include screen-printed dollar bills as a landscape for his figures, representative of how the world ticks. The repetition of printed money drills the point that they can try to escape the grasp of money’s power, but it's always looming over their heads. Bold primary colors are his go-to, joyfully masking the darker narratives that hide beneath the candy-coated surface. “American Flag, Little Big Horn” is in-your-face not just with his color choice, but also the content, where the flag becomes the stage on which a battle is played out.

Though Natchez achieves his goal of purging romantic or glorified notions of indigenous peoples, some images still feel boxed in by expectations of Native American culture or are too rooted in recent Western art history movements. “Guernica to Wounded Knee” is his version of Picasso’s masterpiece, almost verbatim in its composition despite the inclusion of Exxon and Pontiac Service signs hidden in the rubble. More subtlety in revealing his influences may help in detaching his work from the norm to formulate new narratives that speak to Native Americans’ unique situations in contemporary life — specifically, thinking about how Wendy Red Star blends tradition with modern life in her biting photographic works.

The wish for more current references carries over to “Monopoly.” Though it’s a universally known game and gets his point across with crystal clarity, the concept is a bit dated and trite. Natchez says in his statement that he wants to document the Native American in the 21st century, yet technology is only seen in the form of weaponry. These paintings are only part of the story, but an all-encompassing outlook that includes other narratives that are hiding out of the reach of the mainstream would hit home even harder.

One favorite is “Buffalo Bill$,” which is intimate in scale yet powerful nonetheless. Our protagonist rides off on his noble blue steed into a sunset of stock certificates. Because of the cacophony of details from the background and black paint spatters, it takes a moment to notice the small handgun in Bill’s hand pointed at the men in blue at the edge of the painting. All figures of authority (either soldiers of the past or current police) point rifles back at him. He proudly displays his carefully beaded American flag, while fending off what should be his allies. Battles, whether external or internal, are integral to the works. Dealing with the struggle of dual identities, Natchez asks how he and his people can find a balance between living in the modern world and still honoring tradition.

With the open wound that is Standing Rock paired and the historical controversy surrounding Thanksgiving, we should collectively be aware of what has been taken from indigenous people in the name of creating the United States. Not holding back his side of the story, Natchez reveals the un-glamorized reality of life as a Native American.

 

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Stan Natchez: Indian without Reservation

Through Dec. 9.

The Ybor City School of Visual and Performing Arts Gallery at HCC

2112 N. 15^th St., Tampa.

Mon & Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Tues. 12-7 p.m.

hccfl.edu/yborgallery.

 

This article appears in Dec 1-8, 2016.