“Gathering,” a collaborative exhibition organized by Valerie St. Pierre Smith, considers the act of gathering–gathering kin, gathering medicine, gathering songs–as an embodied practice that uplifts indigenous lifeways and ancestral healing practices. Exhibition artists and organizers assert food and plant medicine pathways in the immersive, indigenized environment of the exhibition space to question the disconnects and detachments of an increasingly commodified contemporary health and wellness industry. The exhibit runs from Sept. 19 through Oct. 18 (there is an exhibit opening event on Sept. 13). Exhibition hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 5 p.m., by appointment. Register here. It’s free and open to the public.
Grounded by a series of altars to the four sacred seasons, elements, plants, animals, and phases of human life, the installation brings indigenous of frameworks of healing, reciprocity, and care to the fore. Natural plant kin gathered by Mi’oux Stabler, songs of sandhill cranes recorded by Alex Jacobsen, and photo and projected video by Noah Smith transpose the contours of land and sky onto the gallery space. A central table sits at the heart of the installation inviting conversation, reflection, and rest. As a collective whole, the works in the exhibition shore up relational forms of healing that remedy both body and spirit.
Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
