Trail of Tears
Artist:
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds
(Cheyenne/Arapaho, born 1954)
Date: 2005
Medium: Four aluminum panels
Dimensions:
18 × 109 1/2 in. (45.7 × 278.1 cm)
Each: 18 × 12 in. (45.7 × 30.5 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, Purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund
Object number: 2020.5.a-d
Copyright: © Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds
Provenance: Purchased from the artist's dealer.
Label Text
Borrowing the format of parking signs, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds confronts the memory of the Trail of Tears. The work references the US government’s 1830 Indian Removal Act, which sanctioned the forcible removal of 100,000 Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole peoples from their ancestral lands, resulting in devastating loss of human life and heritage. The artist describes walking as an “instrument of torture perpetuated upon many tribal peoples as the United States inflicted brutal removal policies.” Using the candid language of the common signpost, the artist asks the viewer to stop and consider the past’s continued influence on the present.
(Lana Meador, 2022)
(Lana Meador, 2022)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
