You are on Native land

The Block Museum’s monumental “Woven Being” is expansive yet concise, not so much a group exhibition as a mapping of diverse but related Indigenous art. To put it together, four artists with connections to Chicagoland—Andrea Carlson, Kelly Church, Nora Moore Lloyd, and Jason Wesaw—worked with the museum to choose works to feature alongside their own. The result, which includes mostly but not exclusively contemporary Indigenous artists, is rich and generous with perspective.

Masterful woven vessels, made by Church, Cherish Parrish (Church’s daughter), and John Pigeon, are displayed throughout the galleries. In one corner, a trio of woven sculptures by Church infer links between the pollution and fragility of Lake Michigan, and the dozens of oil and gas pipelines laid beneath its bed, and the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that devours black ash trees, whose bark has been used in basket-weaving by Native artisans for centuries. An accompanying video details the importance of harvesting black ash tree seeds in order to preserve this important tradition.

References to the natural world are bountiful. Water Carries Memory, a large-scale mixed-media installation by Wesaw composed of hanging ribbons of multihued blue above a strip of sand and ceramic pots, channels the lake, as do two hazy, sunset-like paintings by George Morrison. A small glass vitrine shows examples of the art of wigwas mamacenawejegam, or birchbark biting, which results in beautifully ornate, symmetrical flora and fauna designs. 

Elsewhere, archival materials and more personal artworks offer glimpses into complex histories. A facsimile of the Chicago newsletter theCherokee Speaker is displayed alongside a 60s-era propagandist brochure from the Bureau of Indian Affairs promoting the benefits of relocation and, by extension, cultural assimilation. Works by Lloyd make plain the tragedy of that forced assimilation. A back room displays a project inspired by letters her great uncle wrote to his niece, who was forcibly removed from her home to attend a missionary school. Her gorgeous graphic series “Remembering Ancestors” draws the names of her family members using Ojibwe syllabics painted on birchbark. 

But it is Church’s wall-hung sculpture, installed at the show’s entrance, that sets the tone and presents the most important takeaway. Cutout black construction paper at the bottom of the sculpture allows the overhead light to spell out a message on the gallery floor: “You Are on Native Land.”

“Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland”
Through 7/13: Wed–Fri noon–8 PM, Sat–Sun noon–5 PM, Block Museum, 40 Arts Circle, Evanston, blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/exhibitions/2025/woven-being-art-for-zhegagoynak-chicagoland.html