About a decade ago, as artist Dyani White Hawk’s career took off, she began inviting others into her process. Her inspiration, in part, came from collaborations close to home. “If you go to a powwow and see somebody’s full regalia, chances are many family members contributed to create it,” said White Hawk, a member of the Sičáŋǧu Lakota Nation. “Then one person puts on this collective expression and dances it all to life. And that is community.”
That idea, relayed in the catalogue for “Love Language,” the Walker Art Center’s elegant new exhibition of White Hawk’s work, provides a meaningful entry point to her artistry.
The show includes meticulous, time-intensive pieces. While she created much of her early work alone, many of the more recent pieces, often grand in scale, relied on collaboration with artists including beaders, printmakers, glass fabricators and mosaic specialists. Lakota decorative arts like beading and quillwork appear throughout. Sometimes White Hawk’s pieces include beads or quills stitched directly onto the canvas; other times she translates their geometric patterns and color harmonies into paint, glass and tile.
