“The Voices from the Vault” series is back at 6 p.m. today, Nov. 30 at the Ulrich Museum of Art and via YouTube Livestream. There will be a reception before the event at 5:30 p.m. The event will feature Indigenous Artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds. His talk, titled “Spirit Citizen: Provocative Native American Public Art and Studio Practice,” will focus on his pieces in the Ulrich’s permanent collection.
Heap of Birds is one of the leaders of the Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) traditional Elk Warrior Society and lives on the Cheyenne/ Arapaho Nation Reservation in Oklahoma. As an artist and an advocate for Indigenous communities worldwide, his work includes multidisciplinary forms of public art messages, large-scale drawings, Neuf Series acrylic paintings, prints, works in glass and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor sculpture.
While representing Indigenous communities, his art focuses first on social justice and on the personal freedom to live within the tribal circle as an expressive individual.