Chelsea Kaiah Responds...

CAW: Which Zane Grey's works (books and/or movies) is your work engaging with?

Chelsea: The Mysterious Rider and The Vanishing American.

How is your artistic style incorporated into your work?

I am responding to Zane Grey's work with beadwork, hidework, and quillwork. I have been dating my beads, and sculptural found objects from the early 1900's to carbon date the conversation through vintage materials to discuss contemporary Indigenous identity now. 

Are there specific issues or challenges within Native Communities that you are hoping to address and bring attention to?

I think oftentimes Native people can be memorialized- especially in Zane Grey's writing. Celebrating the humor, the resilience, and successes of Native people are always a highlight for me in my practice. 

Does Grey’s work evoke nostalgia or conflict for you, and does your work engage that tension?

I can certainly relate to the nostalgia that comes into play. I’m working with early Industrial bobbins and wrapping my beadwork around them. I’m even creating an old-fashioned custom trinket shelf for these art pieces to sit on. The idea is that shelves are seen as collections and archives of significance. However, just like my own shelves, they can collect dust, and eventually, the conversation about the items on the shelf becomes history and forgotten. This is why, during the installation, I’ll encourage people to interact with and pick up the pieces. I wanted to create a Wunderkammer, which is German for a cabinet of curiosities. Traditionally, these were filled with exotic and rare items. If you consider the conversation about Indigenous Identity that has persisted through the doom of colonization and still endures through assimilation by upholding traditions, you have a rare “Native” that is prized. These are all themes that touch on the romanticization of Native people. The movie “Indian in the Cupboard” is another example. I would frequently revisit it as a kid because, even though it wasn’t a perfect representation, it still had our culture and people in the film, which was comforting enough as it was unfortunately very rare for the 90s.

Last thoughts?

This has been an incredible, different, and fun topic to research in the lens of a Native artist. I really enjoyed learning something new and challenging to then have the creative freedom and space to respond in the only language I know- visually. Ultimately, everyone can step outside their comfort zones, learn something new about someone, a culture, or a time period, and truly digest it in a fresh way.