Postcommodity, a Southwest Native American interdisciplinary artist collective, was founded in 2007 by Kade Twist and Steven Yazzie. Their name refers to the "commodity era" of Native American art trading in the late 1800s and 1900s, with the "post" being in reference to their modern take on traditional Native art forms.
Their current members include Kade Twist (Cherokee Nation) and Cristobal Martinez (Mestizo). Former members are Raven Chacon (2009–2018), Steve Yazzie (2007–2010) and Nathan Young (2007–2015).
Art style
Postcommodity makes use of modern technology (sound, video, etc.) in a way that goes against what would be considered as traditional Native American "Commodity Art" or folk craft. Much of this work has been considered as Asmr. Recently, they have been incorporating their work into architecture, such as adding speakers to pre-existing buildings, or creating their own purpose-built structures.
Another recurring theme in their art is the use of Bird scarer balloons, which contain elements of Native American colors and iconography. Their context for using these balloons is to "function as an intervention repelling the manifestations of the Western worldview and imagination."
In addition to visual art and ASMR, Postcommodity has released music. Much of this music is compiled from other artists, and has been released in the form of LP records.
Artworks 2008
Repellent Eye Over Phoenix
2009
Worldview Manipulation Therapy Do You Remember When? Dead River
2010
My Blood is in the Water If History Moves At the Speed of its Weapons, Then the Shape of the Arrow is Changing It's My Second Home, But I Have a Very Spiritual Connection With This Place
2011
Gallup Motel Butchering The Night is Filled With the Harmonics of Suburban Dreams Radiophonic Territory (Nocturne) A More Just, Verdant and Harmonious Resolution Mother, Teacher, Destroyer Repellent Eye (Winnipeg)
2012
With Salvage and Knife Tongue
2013
Game Remains (Ongoing)
2014
People of Good Will (2014–2016)
2015
Repellent Fence / Valla Repelente (US/Mexico Borderlands) Pollination
2016
A Very Long Line
2017
In Memorium Blind / Curtain The Ears Between Worlds are Always Speaking Coyotaje
2018
From Smoke and Tangled Waters We Carried Fire Home
2019
The Point of Final Collapse With Each Incentive It Exists in Many Forms
2020
Some Reach While Others Clap Let Us Pray for the Water Between Us
Music
2007
Postcommodity + Magor
2011
The Contour 2011 Sound + Vision LP: Piles of Cougar Pelts (recorded 2001–2011) Your New Age Dream Contains More Blood Than You Imagine
2015
We Lost Half the Forest and the Rest Will Burn This Summer
Books
2010
Postcommodity + Magor, Postcommodity Publications (PCP)
Exhibitions
2007
4+4+4 Days in Motion Festival, Prague, Czech Republic Intersections, Institute Slavonice, Center For the Future, Slavonice, Czech Republic
2009
Martha and Mary Street Fair, Arizona State University Art Museum Happening Native Confluence: Sustaining Cultures, Arizona State University Art Museum Worldview Manipulation Therapy, Ice House, Phoenix, AZ
2010
Muorrajurdagat, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo Norway It Wasn't the Dream of Golden Cities, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2011
Here, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA Nuit Blanche, Toronto, Canada. Contour 2011, 5th Bienniel of Sound and Image, Mechelen, Belgium. Half Life: Patterns of Change, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM Close Encounters, Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, Canada The Night is Filled With the Harmonics of Suburban Dreams, Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS
2012
18th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Time Lapse / March 2012, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico Adelaide International 2012: Restless, Adelaide, Australia
2013
It's My Second Home, But I Have a Very Spiritual Connection With This Place, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2014
Boundary//Battle, Redline, Denver, CO Free State Festival, Lawerence Art Center, Lawerence, KS
2015
Ende Tymes Festival of Noise and Liberation, Knockdown Center, Brooklyn, NY Image Festival, A Non-Place in A Space, A Space Gallery, Toronto, ON You Are On Indian Land, Radiator Gallery, New York, NY Repellent Fence, US/Mexican Border, Douglas, AZ, U.S., Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mex. The Advice Seekers Want To Be Told Their Right, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Gallup Motel Butchering, CentralTrak Gallery, University of Texas, Dallas, TX Pollination, SouthwestNET: Postcommodity, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ
2016
Screens and Thresholds, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, BC Visions Into Infinite Archives, SOMArts, San Francisco, CA A Very Long Line, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM People of Good Will, Musagetes Foundation, Guelph, Canada
2017
In Around Beyond, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA I am you, you are too, Walker Art Center, Minneopolis, MN Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, ON documenta14, Kassel, DE documenta14, Athens, GR 2017 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Resistance After Nature, Haverford Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford, PA Land Art - Broken Ground New Beginnings, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL A Very Long Line, Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada Coyotaje, Art in General, New York, NY
2018
57th Carnegie International, 2018, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment, Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, NJ Califas: Art of the US-Mexico Borderlands, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA Hyperobjects, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX Coyotaje, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, Canada
2019
how the light gets in, 2019, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Desert X, 2019, Coachella Valley, CA Some Reach While Others Clap, LAXArt, Los Angeles, CA The Point of Final Collapse, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA With Each Incentive, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Fellowships, Awards, and Grants
2007
Telluride Institute Fellowship for a residency at the Center for the Future in the Czech Republic.
2008
Common Ground Grant, First Nations Composers Imitative, American Composers Forum
2009
Artist Project Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts.
2010
Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. Harpo Foundation Grant. National Museum of the American Indian, Expressive Arts Grant. Elly Kay Fund Award for excellence in contemporary art.
2012 Creative Capital Artist Grant.
2013
Art Matters Grant.
2014
Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Grant.
2017
Art of Change Fellowship, Ford Foundation. USArtist International Grant, Mid Atlantic Art Foundation.
2018
Fine Prize, The Fine Foundation.
2019
The Harker Fund of The San Francisco Foundation.
References
External links
Official website Bockley Gallery