The Archive Reimagined: Wendy Red Star's Familial Art Practice

For Apsáalooke (Crow) artist Wendy Red Star, engagement with her familial archive is critical to her research-based practice. In the past five years, Red Star has created two exhibition projects that demonstrate her centering of Indigenous visual culture within the global sphere of the contemporary art world. The first, APEX: Wendy Red Star, transformed a Portland Art Museum gallery into a photographic diorama that transported viewers to the 1880 Crow Peace Delegation which included her ancestor, Medicine Crow. The second, Wendy Red Star: The Maniacs (We’re Not The Best, But We’re Better Than The Rest), reimagined the New Mexico State University Art Gallery as a rock 'n' roll hall of fame devoted to her father's musical career and Marine Corps service. In both instances, Red Star traversed her familial history by activating living memories through the multisensory vocality of archival materials. Through research and art production, she traveled to earlier moments in time to investigate aspects of her identity in individual, collective, and cultural contexts. In turn, Red Star provided public audiences with unexpected and intimate opportunities to connect with the Indigenous subjects on view, in the cross-cultural spheres of historical delegations, diplomacy commemorations, pop music songs, and military experiences. In the visual narration of APEX: Wendy Red Star and Wendy Red Star: The Maniacs (We’re Not The Best, But We’re Better Than The Rest), Red Star honors her elder family members and ancestors' stories as being very much alive in the present and intertwining with current histories being made.