Returning Clear Voice

Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI Native American

1990

Not on view

Returning Clear Voices, One Who Stands on the Earth (MMA 2015.432), and Scarlet Face (MMA 2015.700) honor three members of the Dakota people who—along with thirty-five others—were hanged by the federal government during the United States–Dakota War of 1862, a conflict caused by U.S. governmental treaty violations and hardship faced by the Dakota owing to white settlement on native lands. Occurring in the region now occupied by the state of Minnesota, it was the largest one-day mass execution in American history, long glossed over or expunged from dominant historical accounts. Heap of Birds calls attention to this injustice in his work, which takes on both memorial and activist functions. By appropriating the graphic treatment and straightforward, institutional language of official signposts, he publicly commemorates these individuals in their native tongue. As such, these works perform a critical task: they reassert a buried history, countering the dominant culture’s amnesia in a manner that is subtle yet hard to ignore.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

References

Title: Returning Clear Voice
Artist: Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI (Native American, Cheyenne/Arapaho, born Wichita, Kansas, 1954)
Date: 1990
Medium: Enamel on steel
Dimensions: 18 in. × 36 1/4 in. (45.7 × 92.1 cm)
Weight: 11.2 lb. (5.1 kg)
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 2015
Object Number: 2015.440
Rights and Reproduction: © Edgar Heap of Birds
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

By Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI

In the same medium

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Ma-ka’tal-na’-zin (One Who Stands on the Earth), Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI Native American, Enamel on aluminum, Cheyenne/Arapaho — Ma-ka’tal-na’-zin (One Who Stands on the Earth)
Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI
1990

One Who Stands on the Earth, Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI Native American, Enamel on steel — One Who Stands on the Earth
Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI
1990

Scarlet Face, Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI Native American, Enamel on steel — Scarlet Face
Edgar Heap of Birds, Hock E Aye VI
1990

Untitled, Doris Salcedo Colombian, Wood, concrete and steel — Untitled
Doris Salcedo
1997–99

History Refused to Die, Thornton Dial American, Okra stalks and roots, clothing, collaged drawings, tin, wire, steel, Masonite, steel chain, enamel, and spray paint — History Refused to Die
Thornton Dial
2004

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