GRANITE FALLS — Autumn Cavender Wilson began her artistic journey as an expectant mother with a focus on her heritage and tradition, and is now moving forward in a very modern, digital way.
Known by her Dakota name of Wicanhpi Iyotan Win, she is a midwife and cultural resource specialist in the Upper Sioux Community.
Knowing the importance of surrounding new babies with cultural items, she sought out mentors in her community to teach her how to prepare these items, she wrote in an email to the West Central Tribune.
Her beginning point was this: Her cousins considered her a “hopeless case” when it came to art. By her own admission, she considered herself a “book nerd” with “no sense of design or aesthetics or much interest in art.”
How far she has come — and where she will go — is what matters now to those who came to view the debut of her new exhibit April 7 at the K.K. Berge Building in Granite Falls.
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Trained as a traditional Dakota quillworker, Cavender Wilson told her audience that she has begun an exploration of what she calls “digital generative quillwork.”
She stood amidst the colorful designs of her new works and explained their origins. She uses digital visualizations of audio data to visually encode songs and stories into larger patterns and designs.
She used the audio files from the birth of her second child to create one of the works she has displayed at the K.K. Berge: “Hoksida Wan Tun-Sounds of Labor.”
She wove together audio of a traditional Dakota love song and contemporary work by the Native band Redbone to create another: “Red-Boning: Come and Get Your Love.”
Another work, "Dakota Odowan 141," is created from the audio recording of her relative, Unkan Chris Mato Nunpa. He sang the traditional Dakota melody that missionaries had put words to as the hymn "Dakota Odowan 141." The song recognizes the 38 Dakota men hanged in the largest mass execution in the United States on Dec. 26, 1862.
Cavender Wilson said she began this art exploration with the help of her husband, Scott DeMuth. He helped provide computer and technical help.
One of her first works was based on a Dakota war song, a march to war. She could see the orderly track marks of the song in the visual depiction of the audio file.
Cavender Wilson said the experimental works may exist only in digital space but, all the same, represent empirical truths. We may not be able to hold these truths in a physical way, but they continue to exist whether or not we have access to them, she explained.
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She asked her audience: “How do we pull these things out of these empirical spaces into physical representations that not only do them justice, but still communicate some of that deeper, underlying truth?”
Her answers are on exhibit at the K.K. Berge Building in downtown Granite Falls through May 7.
She will exhibit her works May 12 through June 17 at the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Gallery, 114 North Third Street, Marshall. There will be a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 2.
