Exhibition - WITHIN: Louis Still-Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion

As artists, Louis Still Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion aim to help reclaim, reinform, and redefine what it means to a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana today. By looking within, they themselves and fellow indigenous communities become whole again. The artists will collaborate to create a mural inside the museum with integrated individual works. The exhibition has a time-based element as the mural is temporary and reflects on the history of cultural erasure, while the combined individual free-standing works reflect continuity and resistance. Still Smoking and Pepion state, “We will be engaging people in a positive way leaving the space with a positive mindset of what collaboration is all about. Pushing creativity and not limiting it. The exhibition will give people a new perspective about indigenous people and their culture because the Blackfeet are still attached to this geographic region and continue to be alive and thriving. The hope is that people will see our point of view as individual artists and indigenous people from this region.” Together the artists investigate the varied meanings of being indigenous, with art and culture being at the core of indigenous education and identity.