The Soul of Nations Foundation is a for-purpose 501(c)3 organization that aims to uplift Indigenous peoples through various forms of media, innovative strategy, and youth-led initiatives. Our mission is to progress Indigenous and Black communities through the arts, research, and scholarship. We envision a world where all people of color are respected as contemporary societies and have greater access to equal opportunities in the following sectors: social, creative, academic, and economic.
KINSTALLATIONS
Regan de Loggans x Justin Sterling
Vernissage: Friday, February 24, 2023, from 6-8 PM
Exhibition term: February 24 – March 15, 2023
Soul of Nations Foundation, Temporary Gallery, 340 East 64th Street, New York, NY, 10065 (between First and Second Avenue). The gallery is open Thursday through Saturday from 1-6 PM or by appointment at rsvp@soulofnations.org
Support for Kinstallations was provided by Chashama, the U.S. Department of State, the Soul of Nations Foundation, and Soul Center— New York.
Kinstallations is a performative exhibition of Indigenous and African American collaborative movement made to evoke the sensations of brown and red interconnectedness from the past, present and future.
This exhibition and performance between Regan de Loggans and Justin Sterling is an expansion of a transcontinental constellation series, in which both artists will be exploring identity, abolition, and the Indigenous diaspora through community crisis. Missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two spirit, and trans people (MMIWG2ST) is an awareness campaign informing the general public that Indigenous people go missing and are murdered at a higher rate than any other demographic. However, statistics collected on this violence, often gathered by the police, fail to include Black people, non-enrolled Indigenous folks, Central and South American Indigenous people, or transgender Indigenous people. This incomplete call for action is based on Indian Country’s internalized colorism, anti-Blackness, and adherence to the Police state, as the determining factor of Indigeneity and urgency.
As two formerly incarcerated people of color, de Loggans and Sterling will add to the discourse by exhibiting a large installation project attempting to unpack complications of the Indigenous diaspora in relation to community violence. Kinstallations includes a performance installation of a red web encapsulated in police barricades of varying materials. Referencing MMIWG2ST, the police state, and continued intercultural disconnects, Kinstallations aims to contribute to the growing discourse of the Indigenous diaspora and raise awareness on perceived shortsightedness within Indian Country.
Additional works within the exhibition space are in reference to the general plight connected to Blackness and Indigeneity, while honoring themes of resistance, abolition, and kinship.
Justin Sterling is an African American artist based in based in New York City. His art utilizes history and politics to subvert, critique, and transform ideas around the human condition in cities, thus exploring how everyday objects shape social behavior. Sterling graduated with an MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2017. Sterling has shown work at the Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC), MoMA PS1, San Diego Museum of Art, and Someday Gallery.
Regan de Loggans (they/themme) is an Indigiqueer artist, curator, and educator based in Lenapehoking (so-called New York City). de Loggans has a multifaceted practice and identity that embraces the Indigenous diaspora, radical politics of refusal, queer kink, and Indigenous anarchism. Their artistry is informed by their work as a history educator, asserting Indigenous and queer representation as a means of reclamation and resistance. De Loggans completed their MA at the Fashion Institute of Technology and BA at Hunter College. They left academia for the frontline, defending Indigenous Sovereignty and raising awareness of ongoing genocide against Indigenous and Black women, girls, two-spirit, and trans communities.
The Soul of Nations Foundation respectfully acknowledges that we currently operate on the ancestral lands of the Munsee Lenape, Piscataway, and Anacostan peoples, which have not been ceded. Thank you for your commitment to Indigenous and Black communities. Please, share our organization’s work with those in your network who are just as invested in BIPOC progression as we are.