Name/Title
Grabbing for LandEntry/Object ID
2024.06Description
Various geometric shapes alongside a sign reading “LAND BACK”.Artwork Details
Medium
Mixed media drawing and collage on archival paperContext
"Notah’s collage Grabbing for Land (2022) references Land Back, uranium mining, and her installation Mama’s Blue (2017). A blue shape connected to thin ropes floats to the left of the scene, calling to mind the earlier installation. Here, the apparatus is held up by a taped sign featuring the words LAND BACK, linking this movement to intertwined issues of reproductive and environmental justice.
Notah states that the piercing yellow shape cutting through the black form…represents “a lightning bolt, a ray of sunshine, and a uranium spill,” connecting natural phenomena (also seen in the tornado form below it) to that of man-made disaster in ways that point to the disruption of hózhó on the Navajo Nation. The yellow construction above [is] a mineshaft… to its right, [is] a hogan—a customary Diné housing and ceremonial structure that is here under threat from a huge droplet of contaminated water that can also be read as a bomb. The black form thus denotes the peril of both radiation poisoning and uranium’s use in nuclear bombs. …the green expanse from which it falls [is] cropland, further connecting these dangers to Dinétah. Two outstretched, armlike forms reach for this field, representing, on the one hand, colonial invasion and continued land misuse, and, on the other, the restorative potential of Land Back and other initiatives at which Native women are at the forefront." - Elizabeth S. Hawley (Art in America)Acquisition
Accession
2024.05-06Acquisition Method
PurchaseCredit Line
Courtesy of the artistLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Class
ArtNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsLOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
Mining, Environmental policy, Indigenous peoplesDimensions
Height
30 inWidth
22 inDimension Description
FrameHeight
35 inWidth
27-1/4 inDepth
1-1/2 in