Journey of the Human Spirit

Michael Kabotie & Delbridge Honanie, Hopi Tribe

Journey of the Human Spirit, 2001

This vibrant, sweeping mural chronicles a concentrated history of the Hopi people, from their rich ancestral emergence to their tragic conquest by the Spanish to their transition into the modern age of industrialization and technology. The mural is decorated with evocative and ethnic symbols that represent both environmental harmony and destruction. Kabotie and Delbridge use bold colors and geometric shapes to unite human, animal, plant, and mechanical forms under a single canvas, conveying at once the dynamism of human agency and the living soul of organic matter on earth. Despite the mural’s beauty, the artists are unafraid to expose viewers to the dark consequences of colonialism: in the second panel, an embittered tribe member stabs a missionary in front of a Catholic Church that was built on Hopi sacred ground, recalling the events of the Pueblo Revolt in 1680; in the fifth panel, a coal-slurry pipeline contaminates the turquoise waters of an underground aquifer. These are just a few of the many intimations of irreversible environmental and cultural annihilation that are inflicted in the name of “progress” and “development” by institutions. Label by Tara Vasanth

Rainforest Destruction

Carl W. Roehrig, German, born 1953

Rainforest Destruction, 2012

This painting presents a large human hand pulling trees up from their roots with scattered trunks on the floor and dark, ominous clouds covering the sky. The storm clouds and rough grip on the trees signifies human ruthlessness in regard to deforestation and presents these actions as horrific. Human hands are carelessly destroying rainforests with no regard to life within it, exemplified by birds fleeing from the uprooted trees. The dead branches highlight what little rainforest remains and serve as a warning that current deforestation practices will eventually lead to the extinction of many rainforests worldwide. Label by Sebastian Rios-Melean

The Crying Forest

Phillipe Echaroux, French, born 1983

The Crying Forest, 2016

French photographer Phillipe Echaroux creates a unique piece by creating striking projections portraits he took of indigenous Suruí people onto the Amazon Forest. The installation was created to raise awareness about the dangers of deforestation and its impact on the ecosystem, which includes the people that live within it; in particular, the Suruí Tribe has been experiencing the ecological violence that comes with extractive practices, and was asked by the Brazilian government to help replant their section of the rainforest, hence why Chief Narayamoga invited Echaroux to form his piece. This work is a significant example of the conservation imaginary as it centers itself on the indigenous people who are an integral part of the Amazon’s ecology, as Echaroux demonstrates by using the forest itself as his canvas. Label by Molly McCarthy Flood

In a photographic series titled ‘The Crying Forest’, French photographer and street artist Philippe Echaroux highlights the devastating issues of illegal logging and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. To create the series, Echaroux worked alongside the indigenous Paiter Surui people of western Brazil. Echaroux took photographs of members of the community and then projected their portraits onto the foliage of the rainforest. This fusion of human faces among the foliage reveals how deforestation is killing not only the Amazon rainforest but the indigenous communities as well. The photographic series was on display at the Galerie Taglialatella in Paris in 2016. Label by Isabel Williams

Arquiero Digital

Denilson Baniwa, Baniwa, born 1984

Arquiero Digital, 2017

This piece is based on an 1834 engraving made by Jean-Baptiste Debret, and so is fundamentally art of reclamation: This piece is an indigenous artist taking something that was originally created by colonizers to exoticize the people of the Amazon region and turning it into a representation of indigenous agency. The symbol of a digital symbol can be taken as representing the overall trend of new media in indigenous campaigns for greater sovereignty and environmental safety from deforestation and extractivism, and its position superimposed over a weapon indicates the artist’s belief in the strength of new media to protect the rainforest environment and traditional land relations, which may themselves be represented by the indigenous subject’s hunting. Label by Frank Kennedy