Erica Lord facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Erica Lord
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| Born | 1978 (age 46–47) Nenana, Alaska
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| Nationality | Nenana Native Association, American |
| Known for | Performance art, photography |
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Notable work
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Erica Lord (born 1978) is an Alaska Native artist. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lord describes herself as being in a "cultural limbo" because of her mixed heritage.
About Erica Lord
Erica Lord was born in 1978. Her mother is Finnish-American. Her father is Iñupiaq and Athabascan. She grew up traveling between her father's village in Nenana, Alaska and her mother's home in Michigan. Nenana is a small town in Alaska with many Native people. Her mother's town in Michigan was mostly white.
Erica's father was an activist for Native American rights. Moving between these different places inspired her art. Her work often explores ideas of belonging and cultural identity. She is a member of the Nenana Native Association. This is a recognized Alaska Native tribe.
Erica studied at Carleton College. She earned a degree in liberal arts and studio arts in 2001. Later, she got her master's degree in sculpture and photography. This was from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006.
Erica Lord's Art Career
Erica Lord has been showing her art since 2004. Her work has been in galleries and museums across the United States. She has had solo shows in Michigan and Alaska. Her art has also been part of group shows. These include the Havana Biennial and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native American Art.
She teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts. There, she helped create some of the first master's degree art classes. During the pandemic, she worked on a project called "Burden Strap." This project was inspired by traditional beaded straps. She beaded patterns of DNA and RNA strands. These patterns showed diseases that affect Native American people more often. Two pieces from this series were shown in a special exhibition in 2023.
In 2022, Erica Lord was one of thirteen artists featured in "Self-Determined: A Contemporary Survey of Native and Indigenous Artists." This showed her important work on Native American issues. She also took part in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art Pandemic Oral History Project in 2020. This project recorded how artists responded to the global pandemic.
Important Exhibitions
- 2023, Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
- 2020, Maajiigin wa’aw akiing miinawaa (Begin This World Again): Gina Adams, Erica Lord, Merritt Johnson, at Accola Griefen Fine Art, New York, NY.
- 2018, The New Red Order: The Savage Philosophy of Endless Acknowledgement, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
- 2007-2017, Our people, Our land, Our images: International Indigenous Photographers, on tour.
- 2010, Dry Ice, Museum of Contemporary Native American Art, Santa Fe, NM.
- 2009, BadLand, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM. This was an art piece with prayer bundles. They were made from the red cloth of the United States' Star Spangled Banner flag.
- 2007, Off the Map: Landscape and the Native Imagination, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY.
Selected Artworks
Native American Land Reclamation Project (2000)
This was one of Erica Lord's first big projects. It focused on her Native American background. In her art piece Native American Land Reclamation Project, she used different materials. She wanted to show how the U.S. government often broke treaties with Native Americans. This happened from 1778 to 1886.
The artwork was shown at the Institute of American Indian Arts. It was in a small room with mirrors on the walls and floor. Hanging from the ceiling were many cut-up red stripes from the U.S. flag. These stripes represented blood. Lord wrapped these cloth pieces around dirt from Native villages and lands across the U.S. The mirrors made the "prayer ties" look endless. This showed how history keeps repeating. Lord explained that she wanted to show a shared history, including both Native and non-Native people.
Untitled (Tattooed Arms) (2007), Digital Photographs
Erica Lord took photos of two tattoos on her forearms. One tattoo says "Enrollment number." The other says "Blood Quantum." These tattoos question how modern society sees Native Americans.
The "Blood Quantum" tattoo refers to old laws. These laws tried to control Native American heritage based on how much "Native blood" someone had. The "Enrollment Number" tattoo is a number given to Erica Lord and other Native Americans by the government. By putting this number on her arm, Erica Lord makes a comparison. She connects the experience of Native Americans to that of Holocaust survivors. Both groups were given numbers by a government that controlled their lives.
The Tanning Project: I Tan To Look More Native (2006)
"The Tanning Project" is a series of four photographs. In these photos, Erica Lord put text on her skin. Then, she used tanning beds to make her skin darker. This left the areas with text much lighter. The words and poses change in each photo. Some of the phrases are "Indian Looking," "Halfbreed," "Colonize Me," and "I Tan to Look More Native."
This artwork challenges ideas about what a Native person "should" look like. It makes people think about cultural purity. It also shows how Native individuals deal with these expectations through their own choices about their bodies.
Artifact Piece, Revisited (2009), Performance and Mixed Media Installation
On April 3, 2008, Erica Lord performed Artifact Piece, Revisited. This took place at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. This performance was a new version of an artwork by American artist James Luna. His original piece was called Artifact Piece and was first performed in 1987.
For her performance, Erica Lord lay down in a display case. She closed her eyes. Museum visitors could then look at her for several hours. Signs near the display pointed out parts of her, like her painted toenails. There were also two glass cases next to her. One held traditional Alaskan Native clothing. The other held modern clothes.
Erica Lord performed this piece two more times over the next two days. By using her own body, she made people think. She questioned how Native people are shown in museum exhibits. She also made a point about how women's bodies are displayed.
