Long Night of the Floating Shell Artists' Talk

On July 11th, featured artists Jonathan Thunder and Zamara Cuyún of the Long Night of the Floating Shell exhibit held an intimate and enlightening artist talk in the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center. The artists shared a personal look into their creative process and lives, comparing and contrasting their experiences as Indigenous artists, both from Minnesota and using art to explore their different ancestral histories. They then took questions from the audience, describing the creation of specific artworks in the gallery and sharing even more intimate details.
    The two artists met through Moira Villiard, Cultural Arts Coordinator at AICHO and curator of the exhibit. Moira explained her method: choosing an artist very familiar to AICHO and an artist with whom we have had somewhat less contact. In this case, Thunder has been a significant contributor to multiple AICHO events; meanwhile, Cuyún became affiliated with the galleries through her participation in the recent Phenomenal exhibit, the first art show designed specifically for women of color in Duluth. 
   Thunder and Cuyún’s work is different, but certain similarities in style and motifs tie the exhibit together. Stylistically, both artists employ a "dark to light" aesthetic, building off of silhouettes to construct their final imagery. Both artists are exploring their cultural roots through their art, and this manifests in their joint title for the exhibit. Zamara referenced the hundreds of years of colonial oppression and genocide, both physical and cultural, that Indigenous communities have faced in both North and South America as the “Long Night,” and Jonathan added the “Floating Shell” as a reference to the floating Megis shell that guided the Anishinaabe to this land. 
 

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The joint exploration of cultural identity is prevalent in the exhibit as a whole, which is partly what makes it such an intimate and personal one. “My work is always focused very much on my history, my thoughts, and my worldview,” said Zamara. "Telling those stories that don’t often get told in our mainstream society.” She makes telling the stories of women a priority, as her art is full of themes of women’s empowerment. In response to an audience member who asked her reasoning for using such heavy lines and contrast in her work, she described a desire to depict the feminine as also bold and carrying weight as opposed to delicate and fragile. According to Zamara, she saw very few works focused on women in traditional Maya art growing up, and what she did find inspired her to create more.

Jonathan Thunder’s work is also deeply personal and exploratory. “I had been working in the theme of paths to identity, paths home, paths to decolonization, and paths to strength,” he said, referencing his work in relation to the Long Night that is a focus of both his art and Zamara’s. The artwork he exhibited was a mix of both lighthearted and more surreal imagery, ranging from a teddy bear with a crown to one of his larger works - the latter depicting a child floating amidst red ceremonial ribbons, between an Indigenous elder to one side and ominous figurative symbols of colonization to the other. 

Jonathan Thunder and Zamara Cuyún are both incredibly talented artists and insightful individuals. Through this exhibit they have outlined similarities between Anishinaabe and Maya Indigenous experiences, explored their identities, and brought forward their own thought-provoking conceptions of what home means to them. We’re so grateful to have their exhibit in the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center and hope to host them both again in the future. The full video of their conversation can be found HERE.