The Osage Nation Museum invites the public to attend a gathering to celebrate the multi-media outdoor installation WayBackenvisioned and produced by the artists Anita Fields and her son Nokosee Fields. The event will take place on the grounds of the east side of the Museum on Saturday, June 1, from 12 to 5 p.m. Anita Fields will give her presentation on the WayBackproject at 4 p.m. Complimentary food and beverages will be available throughout the afternoon.
WayBack was originally produced for the 2023 St. Louis triennial of contemporary art curated by the non-profit organization Counter Public. At the triennial, WayBack was installed at the Sugarloaf Mound site in the ancestral homelands of the Osage. Sugarloaf Mound is the oldest manmade structure in St. Louis and the last constructed mound in the collective sites known as “Mound City.” In 2007, the Osage Nation purchased a large portion of the site as part of the Nation’s land reclamation endeavors. The traditional Osage platform, on which this installation is based, is a multi-functional wooden structure that can be found in the outdoor areas of Osage homes and family dance camps. The platform is used for seating, a place to rest, or a clean space to dry corn. While traditional platforms are generally left untreated or painted one color, Fields elaborates the painted surface with a striking array of ribbonwork design elements that reference Osage cosmologies of balance between sky, water, and earth.
Nine platforms of the WayBack installation will be on view at the ONM and the remaining number will be distributed by the artists to Osage families who have inspired and helped them along in their work. This value of reciprocity is a constant feature of Anita Fields’ artistic practice which recognizes the need and responsibility to give back to the community. As museum director Marla Redcorn-Miller points out, “The Osage Nation Museum is fortunate to be the site to welcome these pieces into our community. The journey that the artists and their work takes – from our ancestral homelands in Missouri to our present-day reservation – echoes the movement of our people and maps connections to our former lands. And finally, the artist literally giving the pieces away to community members speaks to the way in which we bring forward our ways and values to contemporary art practice, thereby living out the values of balance and reciprocity that contribute to community well-being.”
Please join the artists and museum staff for an afternoon of art, community, and conversation about concepts of reciprocity in art.
For questions, please contact the Osage Nation Museum by email at
museum@osagenation-nsn.gov or call (918) 287-5441. The museum is located at 819 Grandview Ave. in Pawhuska.
