UNDOCUMENTED: Difference in America Today
featuring internationally recognized artists Michael Takeo Magruder and Bently Spang
Curators: Sherri Cornett and Dr. Aaron Rosen
Kirks’ Grocery, 2920 Minnesota Ave, Billings, MT 59101
6 December 2018 – 6 January 2019
Art Walk Opening (public): 7 December (Friday) @ 6pm
Hours: Thursdays & Fridays, 6-9 p.m., Weekends (see Facebook Invitation for updates and more information) and by appointment
Michael Takeo Magruder is the descendant of Japanese-American grandparents, who were forcibly interned by the U.S. government during World War II because of their ethnicity. For the first time, he exhibits Zero Tolerance, a newly commissioned media installation that explores the context and rhetoric surrounding the separation and incarceration of families crossing the U.S. southern border. Set behind chain-link fence and alongside mundane artifacts associated with detention centers, an algorithmic video continually splices official government footage and undercover documentation recordings from actual detainment facilities with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ public speech calling for ‘biblical’ justice. www.takeo.org
[Michael Takeo Magruder, Zero Tolerance, 2018, still from algorithmic video. Copyright and courtesy of the artist.]
Bently Spang is an enrolled member of the Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Northern Cheyenne) Nation. His work reflects on the displacement of his people from their homeland by the U.S. government. In the video Waiting to Hunt on ‘the White Man’s Land’ he documents the brief time each year when his people have the opportunity to hunt on their ancestral grounds. He reflects: “This land holds layer upon layer of the story of my relatives in the past.” Rather than resignation to the loss of this territory, his work articulates a deep, enduring bond with a “land we belong to, not land that belongs to us.”
[Bently Spang, Waiting to Hunt on ‘The White Man’s Land’, 2012, still from single-channel video installation. Copyright and courtesy of the artist.]
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My "Shelter 1: Respite" will be in the 2019 Yellowstone Art Museum Auction.
January 25, 2019 – Exhibition Opening Reception
March 9, 2019 – Live & silent auction night
84"x42"x48"
steel, copper, tent fabric, water-resistant canvas, marine rope, cushion, paint
"Designed to sit inside for quiet contemplation or to just imagine doing so"
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"Untamed" from my Freedom Series
2018
recycled, repurposed steel and copper
82 x 40 x 21
fitting into the landscape of a private collector.
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100+ Freedom To, Freedom For, Freedom Of, Freedom From lawn signs created by the Billings community and installed at the Pocket Park at First Congregational Church, October 5, 2018.
For Freedoms 50 State Initiative Billings
Project Director: Sherri Cornett
Part of the national ForFreedoms.org 50 State Initiative
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The Dinners Project: Billings Creatives Potluck and Conversations
Facilitator: Sherri Cornett
October 4, 2018 , First Congregational Church of Billings
In collaboration with Creative Capital, For Freedoms 50 State Initiative, For Freedoms 50 State Initiative Billings and #LoveArmy
Participants: Sharon Forman, Damin Johnson, Phoebe Knapp, Linda Lemire, Tracy Linder, Angel Shandy, Bently Spang, Dixie Yelvington, Yungben Yelvington, Shelly Young
The goals of the national #DinnersProject were to amplify the efforts of creatives who are spearheading non-partisan civic and social change; build and strengthen relationships; have engaging and inspiring conversations and spark new projects and collaborations, all while breaking bread together. Creatives in Billings gathered to share their thoughts and ideas about: What art-based activities are being used or could be used to enhance our community? To support important issues in our community? What would those issues be? What do artists need in our community to thrive? To stay connected? What communities are you part of? How could we connect them?
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