by Luzene Hill
Could you share with us why you chose to pursue a life of art making?
I returned to college in my mid 30’s to study Interior Design. I had never taken formal art classes, but after two weeks in Drawing 101 I had fallen in love with drawing. Making art felt like being in love, all my senses were awakened and mere existence was exhilarating. I abandoned any thoughts of Interior Design, wanting only to draw and paint.
Unfortunately, “life” intruded into my art filled dream. Family responsibilities (twelve years of care giving grandparents and parents) dictated that I put art making on pause.
I did finally return to art, and exhibited for the first time at age 50, in Santa Fe, NM at Indian Market in 1997.
What or who inspires your art and why? Are you inspired by a specific type of subject matter or type of person (for ex survivor of violence, those who feel "othered" etc)
My art evolved from abstract drawing and painting to sculpture, then conceptual installations and performance – art activism. My first multi medium installation, The Pilgrimage Ribbon (2005), addressed the issue of the loss of Indigenous culture, informed by Aztec codices.
In 2009 I was invited to create an installation for a Human Rights conference at the University of North Carolina – Asheville. The work could be on any topic I chose, within the broad subject of human rights. I was considering the subject of contemporary Indigenous issues, but a friend told me about a play she had seen in NYC, Ruined by Lynn Nottage. This play addressed atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – sexual violence in conflict. My friend was so affected by the play, the power of art, that she proposed I consider making art about sexual assault.
In 1994, I was attacked (beaten and raped) while jogging in a park in Atlanta. I recovered physically after a few months, and worked over several years processing that trauma in talk therapy. I had never considered making art about it! In fact, only a handful of people in my life even knew that I had experienced the assault, and I was determined not to be defined by it.
I was intrigued by my friend’s strong reaction to Ruined, and I traveled to NY to see the play for myself. I came home and decided to address the issue of sexual assault, on a broad scale, and began doing research of global and national statistics. The result of my research was “ . . . the body and blood”. The numbers and data cited in that work reflect national statistics in 2009. It was only after I developed the overall concept and was in the middle of making the work that I discovered the truly shocking statistics about violence against Indigenous women in the U.S. That continuing investigation has informed several subsequent installations.
Do you believe art can be a tool used to create social change, specifically for sexual violence?
Yes, absolutely. I came to realize the impact of art activism in that first installation. It had been incredibly hard to make, as I worked on assembling, drying and counting 24,480 rose petals over several months, while continuing to read and research the issue. By the time I mounted this work I had decided that the topic was much too wrenching, to me personally, to ever address the subject again.
However, the response to the work, by other survivors, and friends of survivors, was truly unexpected. I was surprised by the comments in my gallery book, some of which were heartbreakingly personal and poignant. I now believe the gallery setting, with the abstraction of a conceptual presentation, creates an open place for others to express their feelings, their own experiences, and their appreciation that this subject is being brought out into the open.
Silence gives consent.
Breaking the silence that surrounds sexual violence is the first step to ending it.
Much of your work seems to seek to uplift the voices of the most marginalized groups in our society. Could you please share with us why this is important?
The research required for my conceptual installation is as important as the making of the work. Research that began with the “ . . . the body and blood” has guided me from addressing the fact of violence against women to questioning the why. The “why” clearly leads to patriarchy, which has brought so much oppression, and spawned colonialism. Patriarchy is built on domination and control of the “other” (gender, ethnicity, race, religion, etc.)
My investigation into pre-contact culture of the Americas, deepened my sorrow about what was lost on the continent – as a result of colonial patriarchy. My own people (Eastern Band of Cherokee) have suffered trauma, on many levels, for 500 years, but are not alone in that circumstance. I feel a responsibility to speak out – not give consent - and art is my voice.