Will Wilson, Auto Immune Response #2
Will Wilson
Diné (Navajo)
Date
2005
Medium Specific
digital print
Classification
Photograph
Dimensions
8 1/2 x 14 in. (21.6 x 35.6 cm)Sheet: 10 x 15 in. (25.4 x 38.1 cm)
Accession Number
2006.20.10.23
Credit
Gift of the Artist
Memo / Artist Statement
Auto Immune Response is about this kind of post-apocalyptic Navajo man roaming a beautiful but somehow toxic landscape and trying to figure out how to exist in that environment. The title references autoimmune diseases which disproportionately affect Native American populations. So, when I was making this series I was thinking in some ways Native Americans are this Sentinel population where the canary is in the coal mine, but we all share this coal mine. It is also about a response. It is about claiming agency and trying to figure out how to exist in that space and move forward and survive.
In my work there are stories that I grew up with, stories bringing together the cultural weave from which I came. These stories are personal to me as an individual and as a member/citizen of a people; therefore, they must be presented and received with respect. In a way, it is a ceremony; it’s about exorcising discursive demons that have been planted in our minds, and about the processes of remembrance and continuance that enable us to keep functioning.
In my work there are stories that I grew up with, stories bringing together the cultural weave from which I came. These stories are personal to me as an individual and as a member/citizen of a people; therefore, they must be presented and received with respect. In a way, it is a ceremony; it’s about exorcising discursive demons that have been planted in our minds, and about the processes of remembrance and continuance that enable us to keep functioning.
Biography
Will Wilson is a Dine photographer who spent his formative years living in the Navajo Nation. Some of his many awards include the Native American Fine Art Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum; and, in 2010, a prestigious grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. From 2009 to 2011, he managed the Nation Vision Project, a Ford Foundation-funded initiative at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, and helped to coordinate the New Mexico Arts Temporary Installations Made for the Environment (TIME) program on the Navajo Nation.
Wilson has held visiting professorships at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Oberlin College, and the University of Arizona, and he has been an active part of New Mexico's Science and Arts Research Collaborative, which brings together artists interested in using science and technology in their practice with collaborators from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia Labs. Recently, Wilson completed an exhibition and artist residency at the Denver Art Museum and was the King Fellow artist in residence at the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM. He is the photography Program Head at the Santa Fe Community College. An archive of his work, both past and present, and his artist's statements regarding ongoing projects are available on his website: willwilson.photoshelter.com.
Wilson has held visiting professorships at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Oberlin College, and the University of Arizona, and he has been an active part of New Mexico's Science and Arts Research Collaborative, which brings together artists interested in using science and technology in their practice with collaborators from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia Labs. Recently, Wilson completed an exhibition and artist residency at the Denver Art Museum and was the King Fellow artist in residence at the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM. He is the photography Program Head at the Santa Fe Community College. An archive of his work, both past and present, and his artist's statements regarding ongoing projects are available on his website: willwilson.photoshelter.com.
Inscription
Signed, verso in pencil