Woven Being Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland
Zhegagoynak, the place now known as Chicagoland, is a vital center for Indigenous art, past and present. Through the perspectives of four collaborating artists with connections to Zhegagoynak—Andrea Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe/European descent), Kelly Church (Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe of Pottawatomi/Ottawa), Nora Moore Lloyd (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Jason Wesaw (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) —The Block Museum of Art exhibition Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland explores confluences that are continuing to shape Indigenous creative practices in the region and beyond.
This 160-page multi-authored publication centers Indigenous voices and explores the exhibition’s expansive themes and questions. Forthcoming in Spring 2025, the book will be available midway through the exhibition run to document the installation and represent the constellations of artwork on view in the galleries.
Following an introduction by the exhibition’s co-curators, contributors Blaire Morseau (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), Denise Lajimodiere (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe), John Low (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), and Anne Terry Straus expand on the collaborating artists’ contributions from their own disciplinary and personal vantage points, also highlighting works by the twenty-nine additional artists included in the exhibition. These chapters are interspersed with poetry, including by Heid Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe), Mark LaRoque (White Earth Ojibwe), and Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe), a resource guide focusing on Chicago’s Indigenous-led arts organizations, and installation views of the exhibition.
