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Art Institute of Chicago

Spotted

Edgar Heap of Birds — Boost West
Edgar Heap of Birds

Boost West

1990

An enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds uniteshis commitment to Indigenous histories and land rights with legacies of Conceptual Art, landscape painting, and art in public space. He started his pastel drawings of words and short sentences in the mid-1980s, describing them as “wall lyrics,” iterative and rhythmic expressions of personal experiences. Evoking a trip the artist made from Oklahoma to the San Francisco Bay Area, Boost West speaks to both the spiritual transformation that can occur during travel and the importance of voyages in Cheyenne culture. As such, Boost West is as much an abstraction of the artist’s experiences as a physical manifestation of memory.

Medium
15 pastel drawings on white wove paper
Dimensions

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About this work

Edgar Heap of Birds, Boost West, 1990

An enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds uniteshis commitment to Indigenous histories and land rights with legacies of Conceptual Art, landscape painting, and art in public space. He started his pastel drawings of words and short sentences in the mid-1980s, describing them as “wall lyrics,” iterative and rhythmic expressions of personal experiences. Evoking a trip the artist made from Oklahoma to the San Francisco Bay Area, Boost West speaks to both the spiritual transformation that can occur during travel and the importance of voyages in Cheyenne culture. As such, Boost West is as much an abstraction of the artist’s experiences as a physical manifestation of memory.

Medium
15 pastel drawings on white wove paper
Dimensions
279.4 x 228.6 cm
Year
1990
Seen at
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Related themes

Bold, Text Art, Native American, Social Commentary, Colorful, Pastel, Contemporary

Collected by

Art Institute of Chicago