object/ritual
Selena Kearney
25th November 2023 - 20th January 2024
Opening reception 2-5pm 25th November
Image credit: ebay, $31.07, 2019, Selena Kearney
I feel shame when I wear my regalia. I feel like a character and a fraud wearing feathers, cedar, and beads gifted to me by my beloved community. Yet, a ritual takes place in my mind when I go from wearing street clothes to wearing my regalia. The ritual pulls courage from my ancestors and relatives all around to assert my personhood into the landscape of history with them.
I consumed, collected, and displayed these objects pictured. The costumes were found embedded deep in the American consciousness. The objects are taken, fragmented, and captured out of time and context. Their beauty and craft are open to a thoughtful gaze considering their meaning. Suspended in the dark they shine with the loss and sadness for an intimacy given up for the benefits of consumerism and discovery.
- Selena Kearney, Chehalis Tribe
Daughter to Teressa Rosander and Janice Latch
Granddaughter to Ida Rosander
selena kearney
Raised on the Chehalis Reservation in Washington State, Selena Kearney uses photography as a tool to be of service to her community and as a vehicle for artistic expression. Her work includes portraiture and documentary practice as well as constructed conceptual works. Selena creates images that are rooted in a sense of place and culture. She is the skipper for the elder-led canoe family from Suquamish, Spirit of the Raven. Kearney holds a Certificate in Fine Art Photography from Photographic Center Northwest, a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Evergreen State College, and is a graduate student (beginning in fall 2023) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Photography Program.
https://www.selenakearney.com/
Instagram: @latchselena
