National Domestic Violence Awareness Project

whitneymuseum:

In Rez Dog, Rez Dirt, Demian DinéYazhi´ layers text and narration over footage of his grandparents’ land north of Ch ́ínílį–Diné Bikéyah (Navajo Nation). In the voiceover, he describes returning to the reservation where he spent much of his childhood. Through the intimacy of his story and the video’s DIY aesthetic, his monologue expresses a deep emotional connection to the desert. Printed over the shaky, lo-fi footage is Joy Harjo’s poem “Returning from the Enemy,” which speaks to the profound relationship between home and land. While the simultaneity of the two texts introduces a sense of disconnection and rupture, for the artist the entwined stories are also a testament to the concept of survivance. More than survival, it is a way of life that actively sustains Indigenous forms of knowledge. 

See the work on view now in Between the Waters. 

[Demian DinéYazhi´, still of Rez Dog, Rez Dirt, 2013. Video, color, sound; 3:59 min. loop. Collection of the artist]