Oklahoma Contemporary debuts Destination Oklahoma

Connecting cultures, near and dear, Chamber member Oklahoma Contemporary welcomed their newest exhibition, Destination Oklahoma, with an opening reception and artist talk on July 14.

On display and free to visit through October 17, the exhibition provides an introspective look into the migration patterns of people affiliated with Oklahoma, and the clash of cultures that may have come as a result. Consisting of work by five Oklahoma-based artists – September Dawn Bottoms, Ghazal Ghazi, Skip Hill, America Meredith, and Đan Lynh Phạm – and co-curated by Pablo Barrera and Liz Blood, Destination Oklahoma allows viewers to arrive at new conclusions when questioning the things often associated with being an Oklahoman.

Pablo Barrera emphasized the importance of contemporary art in understanding the world around us. Barrera expressed, although historical works can be just as powerful, oftentimes people must do their own digging to fully understand the context.

“I think contemporary art, especially for Oklahomans who don’t have that training or that exposure, it’s a great way to just start that conversation, to look at something that you thought you knew,"

Barrera said. "Then give it another turn, another facet with which to explore, another lens, another perspective."

Neither One of Us Is as Saved as We’d Like to Be by September Dawn Bottoms, shown printed on a complimentary postcard of the Destination Oklahoma exhibition.

One lens the exhibition looks through is that of visual artist September Dawn Bottoms.

Neither One of Us Is as Saved as We’d Like to Be depicts a fire burning through the night, which the photographer explained was not planned but a moment of inspiration sparked by the fluorescent flames, roadside. Bottoms told the artist talk audience she had returned to Oklahoma to address trauma tensioned between family members, represented by the artwork’s overlaid elements; an old photograph of her grandparents and a handwritten note.

Perhaps, no one provided a better outlook on the artwork than contributing poet, Sly Alley in stating:

“A burn pile is built up where your garden once was.

Before we were scattered about

Like the ashes of our parents,

Like our ashes

Someday.”

The poem continues as an excerpt in the exhibition’s included “zine” titled Migration, Oklahoma by Destination Oklahoma co-curator, Liz Blood, which combines visual artists’ images with the words of writers. Blood provided each writer with an image that she felt would compliment their writing style, providing viewers with additional outlooks on the artworks through the "zine."

The "zine" includes writings by Stacy Pratt, Sly Alley, Kaveh Bassiri, Moheb Soliman, Chad Reynolds, and Liz Blood. The print's layout was designed by Hayley Nichols. 

Positioned a few feet from where visitors can pick up their own copy of the “zine” is the work of Ghazal Ghazi.

"There are different layers of distance, familiarity, domesticity, loss, and affect experienced through the process of immigration." -Ghazal Ghazi

The Iran-born artist's painting Monumental Redactions: Ali’s Return to America from the Middle East Four Months After 9/11, depicts the headshot of a man partially colored on a large linen cloth; incorporating paint, embroidery, and pencil aspects.

Monumental Redactions: Ali’s Return to America from the Middle East Four Months after 9/11 by Ghazal Ghazi.

“I have come to appreciate how fabric has memory. Folding, rolling, or creasing the fabric can result in imprints or indentations that live in the fabric body, and there are a lot of parallels to that. I find myself appreciating that more over time as I continue to work without stretcher bars,” Ghazal Ghazi said.

The embroidery within the artwork is used to redact certain words from the overall message written across the cloth in reference to the work’s theme of memory and the eternal quality of the emotion.

“The decision to embroider the redactions rather than paint them was also an intentional one. Viewers can get close to the painting and look between the threads to see that there are words there behind them, just beyond their reach. It creates this yearning for words, even though the viewer may not speak Persian. It also raises questions of access, of the histories and archives that are kept just beyond our reach.”

"These are Oklahomans. These are people coming to Oklahoma.” -Pablo Barrera 

America Meredith addresses access to the outside world through her work, Currents. The painting sits atop a steel panel, comparable to your everyday street sign. A variety of fish find their way through the acrylic stream, just as many of our ancestors found their way to Oklahoma. The work alludes to returning home, after spending time away, bringing what you have learned with you to your home community.

God Gives the World to Arapaho Children by America Meredith.

“I'm Native American, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, and have Swedish American heritage. So I understand that I'm a guest in Norman, Oklahoma, which has been the ancestral homelands of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes for thousands of years. Waves of diverse people have moved here and add to the rich history of the land. I think the question that faces all of us is can we learn to understand and adapt to the land in a sustainable manner like the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes have?”

“Your affiliation doesn’t fall off when you leave home. You carry home with you.” -America Meredith

Skip Hill, an artist included in the State Capitol's Betty Price Gallery Oklahoma State Art Collection, brings a few of his paintings to Destination Oklahoma, as well. 

The paintings portray the lives of Black Americans in a bright and colorful way that contrasts many of the underlying sentiments associated with sustaining their communities in Oklahoma.

During the opening night’s artist talk, artists were asked to present one word with which they identified themselves or their work. Hill’s word was Beloofde Land, a Dutch interpretation of “Promised Land.” Oklahoma was once advertised as a promise land for American Freedmen.

Love Garden/Down By the River by Skip Hill.

However, once arrived, the Black settlers realized this land did not live up to what was promised. Incidents like the Tulsa Race Massacre made it apparent that this land, too, was hostile to new inhabitants. Hill’s work does not show the struggle or strife of these times directly but references them through symbolic nature like birds and flowers, providing a pleasant sensory experience for the casual viewer and an in-depth literary experience for those looking deeper.

Currently based in Tulsa, Vietnam-born artist, Đan Lynh Phạm brings an almost analytical approach to artmaking. Each element in Phạm's work seems to be perfectly positioned, presenting the overall message in a clear and concise manner.

"My work is a visual diary that moves between personal and external experiences." -Đan Lynh Phạm

Phạm moved to Oklahoma alongside her parents in hopes of advancing their careers, moving away from the comfort of her grandmother, who had become her sense of home in the United States.

Utilizing art as a visual diary, Phạm presents her sorrow for the situation in Thank You, Bà Nội. The screen print shows a young girl, melancholy, dialing a landline phone and listening for a response; alluding to the feelings felt by Phạm in leaving California, the first place her family settled when moving here.

“I realized that what I consider my safety net was never a location but the people in it,” Phạm said.

Thank You, Bà Nội by Đan Lynh Phạm shown inside of Migration, Oklahoma.

“I never thought of California as my sense of safety, but the family there that I spent my formative years with were. That also goes along with Oklahoma. The family and community I grew up with here have evolved into my sense of safety. Safety is not something we often discuss daily, but it is a feeling we subconsciously pursue throughout our lives. As our relationships grow and fade with those around us, so do our safety nets.”

The work of the five artists, positioned by curators, Pablo Barrera and Liz Blood, provides Oklahomans with a greater understanding of the many migrations affiliated with the state. Much more than cowboys and so-called Indians, Oklahoma is a land of many peoples, and a home to countless cultures.

You can visit Oklahoma Contemporary’s Destination Oklahoma exhibition in the Mary LeFlore Clements Oklahoma Gallery, now through October 17 for free. Exhibition guests are given a copy of the Migration, Oklahoma zine, along with their selection of souvenir postcards when visiting.

Visit www.oklahomacontemporary.org to learn more.