Dana Claxton (Lakota, Canadian, b.1959) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan and based in Vancouver. Drawing on Lakota cultural values, history and language, Claxton questions the multifaceted layers of identity inherent to indigenous ways of being. Issues surrounding indigenous labour and resistance, resource extraction and capital feature prominently in her latest research and work on the Service, Office and Retail Worker’s Union of Canada’s (SORWUC’s) 1978 protest action against the Muckamuck Restaurant.
Claxton’s work has been shown internationally at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Walker Art Centre, Sundance Film Festival, Eiteljorg Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), and held in several major Canadian public collections. Her awards include the VIVA Award and the Eiteljorg Fellowship. Her work was selected for the Sydney Biennial (2010), Biennale de Montréal (2007), Biennale d’art contemporain du Havre, France (2006), Micro Wave, Hong Kong (2005) Art Star Biennale, Ottawa (2005), and Wro 03 Media Arts Biennale Wroclaw Poland (2003).
The Aboriginal Distinguished Artist Program is pleased to present a talk by Dana Claxton. Dana Claxton is an interdisciplinary artist whose work includes film and video, installation, performance, photography, and curating. Over the past 17 years, her work has generated alternative, subversive societal critiques that have informed the field of art and social history.
She is currently part of a group show presented by the Contemporary Museum of Photography at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa titled, Steeling the Gaze: Portraits by Aboriginal Artists. From the whimsical to the reverential, the poignant to the political, these artists refashion the view of Native people not only by the way of the camera lens, but also through their own cultural perspectives. The works also challenge the stereotypes that have been previously constructed about them by others for political, religious, or commercial purposes.
This lecture is free of charge. It is part of the Aboriginal Distinguished Artist Program and is organized in conjunction with the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory; the First Nations Studies Program; the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery; and the Museum of Anthropology with the support of the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia.
Dana Claxton
Daddy’s Gotta New Ride
2008. From The Mustang Suite.
Courtesy of the artist.
Dana Claxton (Lakota, Canadian, b.1959) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan and based in Vancouver. Drawing on Lakota cultural values, history and language, Claxton questions the multifaceted layers of identity inherent to indigenous ways of being. Issues surrounding indigenous labour and resistance, resource extraction and capital feature prominently in her latest research and work on the Service, Office and Retail Worker’s Union of Canada’s (SORWUC’s) 1978 protest action against the Muckamuck Restaurant.
Claxton’s work has been shown internationally at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Walker Art Centre, Sundance Film Festival, Eiteljorg Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), and held in several major Canadian public collections. Her awards include the VIVA Award and the Eiteljorg Fellowship. Her work was selected for the Sydney Biennial (2010), Biennale de Montréal (2007), Biennale d’art contemporain du Havre, France (2006), Micro Wave, Hong Kong (2005) Art Star Biennale, Ottawa (2005), and Wro 03 Media Arts Biennale Wroclaw Poland (2003).