Drawing Radical Futures

Drawing Radical Futures is a series of pieces commissioned by the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center for the 2023 ArtNow biennial.

The exhibition, titled “ArtNow: The Soul is a Wanderer”, is based on the poem A Map to the Next World by Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. My works are installed in the Learning Gallery, an interactive learning space that makes the ideas in the main exhibition accessible to a broader audience. I created two large wall drawings and an interactive drawing exercise.

Wall Drawings

This exercise is part of the Radical Drawing series. It is also the first work published through my newest project Practice Practice.

I was commissioned to create two large wall drawings to illustrate the ideas in the exhibition. My first illustration is called Portal to the Future. A cosmic ladder invites the audience into an abstract, creative space. The ladder is a bridge between the present and the future, which is filled with color and pattern. I designed this pattern based on an ancestral Wayuu pattern that represents animal footprints. It is also informed by a Japanese pattern depicting an arrow’s tail as it flies. To me, these ideas represent moving into the future.

My second wall drawing is called Drawing Futures. It shows an enormous hand tracing a large portal on the wall. The hand is adorned with pattern and color, complimenting the portal from the first drawing. This hand is represents ancestral understanding, the way our choices create the future.

This illustration faces the tables, where people are invited to use the drawing exercise to create a map to their future.

Drawing Exercise

The Drawing Radical Futures exercise guides visitors as they draw a map to their future. They then cut and fold it into a small booklet. This activity is based on a line from Joy Harjo, “You must make your own map.”

In response to this, I write, “When you draw a line, you create a path. When that path makes a shape, it creates a portal. That portal leads to many possibilities. What shape is it? What is on the other side?”

Visitors could take their maps with them, or leave them to become part of a map library.

Special Edition Print

OCAC commissioned a special edition of prints for the ArtNow biennial. The print shows an ancestral hand opening a portal to the future. I drew a unique portal on each print in bright blue.