Hold to This Earth review – Indigenous America shakes up Yorkshire

The Power of Indigenous American Art

A breeze from the vast North American plains has blown across the rolling Yorkshire hills. The work of 38 Indigenous American artists has filled the galleries of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, transforming their underground space into a world of clay and earth, fabric and ceramics, painting and sculpture that talks of land, memory, oppression and freedom through art.

Exploring Ancestral Identity and Tradition

Everywhere, there’s a sense of ancestral identity, memory and tradition. It’s in the Navajo weavings of Tyrrell Tapaha and Melissa Cody, the patterned beadwork of Jeffrey Gibson, the dizzying geometricism of Dyani White Hawk’s towering column. They all use traditional aesthetics to explore new ideas: Gibson’s work is about how his queer identity meets his Indigenous culture, White Hawk pushes into pure abstraction, Cody mixes pixelated video game aesthetics into Navajo patterns, and on and on. Everyone here is taking the old ways and pushing them in new directions.

The Art of Resistance

It’s not all weaving, hides and beads; there are photos, neons and videos here too. But what links most of the work is a sense of art enduring in the face of oppression. Indigenous Americans live on occupied land, they have been persecuted and exploited for centuries, how could their art not reflect that injustice? This is a show full of anger and protest.

A Call to Action

Edgar Heap of Birds’ placards protest against the exploitation of sacred sites. Yatika Starr Fields hangs tents from the ceiling which were used by protesters fighting against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sayokla Kindness Williams calls for the return of stolen ancestral land with a beadwork sign. Virgil Ortiz commemorates a Tewa leader who organised a 17th-century revolt against the Spanish with a giant black ceramic bust. After centuries of colonialism and exploitation, there’s just so much anger and pain here. This show isn’t just about the earth and memory, this is art as a form of aesthetic resistance.

A Moving and Beautiful Snapshot

Among the many exhibitions of Indigenous art that have become such a big trend in UK museums in recent years, this is neither the best nor the worst. But it is a moving and sometimes very beautiful snapshot of art from a diverse community, one united by a shared pain, a love of the land and a belief that, fundamentally, a lot more connects us than divides us.