About
Native artists from across Oklahoma’s diverse tribal landscape are participating in H2OK: Native Response to Water Issues in Oklahoma, a group art show first opening in Norman, Oklahoma and traveling to Muskogee, Oklahoma. The show will open at Mainsite Contemporary Art on 120 E. Main, Norman on February 10, 2012 and will run until March 10, 2012. The Bacone College Art Gallery will exhibit the show, from April 6, 2012 through May 13, 2012, on campus in the McCombs Hall Art Building, 2299 Old Bacone Road, Muskogee.
The artists, who live in Oklahoma or belong to Oklahoma tribes, will express cultural attitudes to water in all of its forms, such as rivers, oceans, rain, and drinking water, environmental aspects of water, confront political realities of our dwindling water supplies, or simply the aesthetics of water in their art, which ranges in media from underwater photography, to digital art, sculpture, printmaking, painting, or installation. Many tribes’ oral histories talk about the earth being completely covered by water until land was formed, and many talk about a great flood. Water is used in ritual purification, either by immersing oneself in clear, running water or drinking and expelling water before a significant meal.
Schedule
April 2—May 14, 2012
H2OK exhibition at the:
Merrett Donaghy Betts Library,
Bacone College,
2408 E. Shawnee Road,
Muskogee, OK 74403.
The library operating hours are Monday - Thrusday 8am-9pm and Friday 8am-5pm.
April 14, Saturday, 4:30-6:30pm
Artists' reception at the Betts Library. Light refreshments will be served.
February 18, 1-3pm
Public dialogue about water issues in Oklahoma at Mainsite Contemporary Art Gallery.
Speakers will include:
- Dr. Robert Nairn, who has been working with Indigenous communities in North and South American (including the Pawnee and Choctaw tribes in OK) to regain usable water from damaged water sheds.
- Dr. Randy Peppler, who has been working with Indigenous farming communities in Southwestern OK to document local evidence of climate change.
- Gordon Yellowman (Cheyenne), who has been working to develop a mapping system of the Southern Plains surface water systems using Cheyenne knowledge/language/names.
- (TBD) Verona Deer (Otoe/Missouria), who has been working for her tribe's Environmental Office to develop and implement plans for environmental preservation - special efforts to clean up their local stream systems.
February 10–March 10, 2012
H2OK at Mainsite Contemporary Art Gallery, 120 E. Main, Norman, OK
Opening reception: Friday, Feburary 10th, 6-9pm
All events are free and open to the public.