Chicago, Illinois
Exhibition - 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial, CAB5: This is a Rehearsal
Completed: 2023
Fabrication: Current Projects, MKE
Renders: Eli Liebenow
Photography: Tom Harris Photography
This piece is for the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial, CAB5: This is a Rehearsal. This piece is an alternative land acknowledgment in that, the designer, while Indigenous, is a stranger in the land now known as Chicago. The piece is intended to be a prompt for individuals to reflect on the Indigenous land they are on. The piece is a structure within a structure – Like the designer is a citizen of a Nation within a Nation.
This piece is called “ukwé·tase” (Stranger) in the Oneida language. It reinforces the notion that the designer is working on land that is not their own - We are all strangers somewhere.
The cladding of the piece varies on each of the surfaces so that it presents itself to views differently from different approaches. This is because biennial visitors may come into the gallery from different openings and move around the piece. One surface is layered in deer hides as a lesson from our non-human relatives to inform cladding.
Another portion of Stranger is clad with Jingles. These are typically worn by Indigenous woman (originates in Ojibwe culture) on their Pow-Wow dresses. They present movement as an auditory experience – harder dancing creates louder sound. On ukwé·tase they are arranged as an index of a star map. The jingles as reflection of light in the gallery setting as another form of sensorial provocation.
The interior contains a screen within the “chimney” to provide a view of the sky in New Mexico, the current location of the designer. Indigenous architecture has always provided a view of the sky and this piece is doing that, although virtually.
Stranger reinforces the notion that we are all strangers if we are not of the Nation that is Indigenous to the land we are on.