A Center Place: Locating the Recent American Indian Artist in the Sculptures of Nora Naranjo-Morse

Mentor: Dr Cristin Cash

Abstract: Nora Naranjo-Morse is part of a larger movement of recent American Indian artists contributing to the discourse on multiculturalism, navigating between the traditional American Indian art world and modern Anglo American art world. Naranjo-Morse locates the recent American Indian artist by emulating the postcolonial binary model in her place-specific public sculptures, Numbe Whageh, Always Becoming, and Story Line. She organizes and defines spaces with the intent to establish Tewa places within Anglo American places. Ultimately, what is presented is an argument for multicenteredness, in which recent American Indian artists exist in many places as many identities simultaneously.

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