Generation Loss
Installation of new works by Dylan McLaughlin
May 3 – June 15, 2024
Big Medium proudly presents Generation Loss by Dylan McLaughlin
The exhibition, Generation Loss, is a sound and sculpture installation that evokes the exploitation, extraction, and weaponization of Indigenous communities and technologies. The exhibition centers a looping sound piece titled I Had a Dream Wherein I was Taught a Ceremony to End the World. In Navajo, they say there have been multiple worlds besides this one. First World, Second World, Third World, Fourth World, and the world we are in called Glittering World. The artist meditates on when and how worlds are ended and begin again.
“Generation Loss” is an installation of new works that weave the distortions of fragmented lineage and the reverberations of language and land. McLaughlin looks to familial narratives, the entangles of colonialism that inform the technologies that perpetuate extraction, and Diné cosmologies in a performance that is deeply personal and grasps for harmony whilst unsettled.
Generation Loss runs from May 3 - June 15, 2024
Member Preview: May 3, 7-8 PM
Opening Reception: May 3, 8-10 PM
(new) Gallery Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 6-9PM and Saturday & Sunday 11AM-4PM
(New) Big Medium: 4201 S Congress Ave, #323
About the artist
Dylan McLaughlin is a multidisciplinary artist looking critically to ecologies of extraction and threatened ecosystems. He weaves Diné mythology, ecological data, and environmental histories while holding space for complexity. What transpires is the sonification of relationships to land through experimental music composition and improvised performance. In his multi-media installation and performative works, he looks to engage the poetics and politics of human relations to land. He is a recipient of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT award, and has done residencies at Mass MoCA, BOXO Projects, Slow Research Lab and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. McLaughlin’s work has been shown in spaces including SITE SANTA FE, Denver Art Museum, Smack-Mellon in Brooklyn, and Museum of Capitalism in Oakland, California. McLaughlin’s work is featured in An Indigenous Present, Speaking With Light, and Museum of Capitalism publications. He received his BFA in New Media Art from the Institute of American Indian Arts, and his MFA in Art & Ecology from the University of New Mexico. He is currently an Early Career Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching Performance Art in the College of Fine Arts.
Image courtesy of the artist.