Thomas Greyeyes, Eyes Like Arrows
Thomas Greyeyes
1990-
Diné (Navajo)
Alternative Name
Tomahawk Greyeyes, Tom Greyeyes
Date
2013
Medium Specific
Digital print
Classification
Photograph
Dimensions
14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Accession Number
2015.20.10.28
Credit
Gift of the Artist
Memo / Artist Statement
Art making is a form of decolonization because we need to dream. Without that, how can we envision anything? That’s exactly what artists do. We find inspiration and then we begin to bring it out into the physical reality. When we do that, it carries an energy, and with that it promotes dialogue. We need to take this approach to decolonization theory too. Bring it into a space any way we can and, then, from putting it into action, we start creating and evolving the theory based on our experiments. Art is decolonizing when that fire inside you is re-lit. You realize that we can do anything. The system has our minds confined and part of decolonizing is radicalizing our minds. I don’t have all the answers but I know which direction to face and right now walking that way is enough. Developing a practice out of that and continuing to build that fire is what I’m doing. It’s more important than fame and money.
(https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/download/21319/17381/, 2020)
(https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/download/21319/17381/, 2020)
Biography
Tomahawk is an interdisciplinary artist from the Navajo Nation and was raised throughout the state of Arizona. For his undergraduate degree he majored in Intermedia from Arizona State University and graduated in 2011. In 2016 he graduated with an MFA in Social Practice at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
Using site-specific installations, print, and video to convey intertribal autonomist messages to the dominant society. The work challenges Western ideas of what it means to be a human being and the stereotypical ideas of Native peoples in America. (https://tomahawkgreyeyes.com/AboutMe, 2020)
I’m Hashk’aan Hadzohi (yucca fruit strung out in a line), born for Todichiinii (bitterwater). I originate from a
place called Tsiizizii on Navajo Reservation but was raised throughout the state of Arizona, specifically Flagstaff. I’m a bit of an urban Indian but I’m rugged and can get down with rez life.
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/download/21319/17381/
Using site-specific installations, print, and video to convey intertribal autonomist messages to the dominant society. The work challenges Western ideas of what it means to be a human being and the stereotypical ideas of Native peoples in America. (https://tomahawkgreyeyes.com/AboutMe, 2020)
I’m Hashk’aan Hadzohi (yucca fruit strung out in a line), born for Todichiinii (bitterwater). I originate from a
place called Tsiizizii on Navajo Reservation but was raised throughout the state of Arizona, specifically Flagstaff. I’m a bit of an urban Indian but I’m rugged and can get down with rez life.
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/download/21319/17381/