Inherent Memory Vimeo Showcase

Inherent Memory features contemporary Indigenous basketry-related art created by Indigenous women and nonbinary artists from California and the Great Basin, including painting, sculpture, multimedia, basketry, poetry, video, and photography. This exhibition aims to raise awareness of contemporary Indigenous art from these areas and to educate museum audiences about Great Basin Tribal arts and culture, including the importance of basketry. Inherent Memory will showcase the work of 19 artists from this underrepresented area. Several of these artists are IAIA alumna and IAIA artists-in-residence.

Exhibiting artists include Sarah Biscarra Dilley (Northern Chumash), whose multimedia video layers basketry images over landscapes of her homelands, exploring the spaces between the worlds of bloodlines, bodies, and the land. Artist and activist Fawn Douglas (Las Vegas Paiute Tribe) shares and preserves stories of Indigenous Peoples, the natural world, and the environment through sculptural baskets, bracelets made of willow, and basketry-inspired paintings. Brittany Britton (Hupa) creates burden baskets made of loosely twined wire. Natalie Ball’s (Klamath, Modoc, and African American) work addresses racial narratives critical to the understanding of self and nation, as well as shared experiences and histories.

The exhibition is guest curated by Melissa Melero-Moose (Northern Paiute and Modoc), visual artist and curator for the Great Basin Native Artists. Download and view the Inherent Memory Catalog.

Participating Artists

• Brittany Britton (Hupa)
• Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) ’05, A-i-R ’19
• Carina King and Pauli Carroll (Yurok)
• Fawn Douglas (Southern Paiute)
• Ka’ila Farrell-Smith (Klamath and Modoc) A-i-R ’17
• Karma Henry (Paiute) A-i-R ’21
• Leah Mata Fragua (Northern Chumash)
• Lena Tseabbe Wright (Nevada Paiute and Yurok)
• Lillian Pitt (Yakama) A-i-R ’18
• Linda Aguilar (Chumash)
• Melissa Melero Moose (Northern Paiute and Modoc) ’09
• Micqaela Jones (Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone)
• Monique Sol Sonoquie (Chumash, Apache, Yaqui, Zapotec) A-i-R ’19
• Natalie Ball (Modoc) A-i-R ’16
• Rebecca Eagle (Paiute/Shoshone)
• Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini [Northern Chumash])
• Tanaya Winder (Southern Ute, Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Diné, and African American)
• Topaz Jones (Shoshone/Lummi) ’11, A-i-R ’20

For more information, please contact IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man at manuela.well-off-man@iaia.edu.