As part of the exhibition Haegue Yang: Quasi-Heartland, CAM has commissioned the artist to create the installation Mound Vehicles. Featuring non-traditional elements like handles, custom Venetian blinds, and casters, this room-size installation is a four-part sculpture that was inspired by the Yang’s recent visit to Cahokia and engages the St. Louis region’s precolonial history and the Mississippi River landscape.
This evening program explores links between the contemporary moment and Yang’s Mound Vehicles and the historic civilizations of our Mississippian mound builder ancestors through a conversation between exhibition curator Misa Jeffereis and Dr. Angela Cooper, Interpretation Site Services Specialist II for Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. The evening will explore concepts that relate to Cahokia and Mound Vehicles, including pilgrimage and procession, how museums and history sites shape our understanding of Indigenous experiences and perspectives, and how learning about the past shapes the present and future.
The evening will include a pop-up shop highlighting Indigenous artists and cultural stewards, both based in St. Louis, as well as those whose relationships with these lands and waters predate and transcend colonial borders. Featured contributors include Lydia Cheshewalla, Kassie Kussman, Veronica Pipestem, and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. A reception with complimentary light bites and drinks for purchase will be provided.
Schedule
- 5:30 pm: Doors open to visit pop-up shop and galleries
- 6:15 pm: Conversation between Misa Jeffereis and Dr. Angela Cooper
- 7:00 pm: Reception
Registration is encouraged; please click here to sign up.
Accessibility Notes
- To request an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter for this event, please contact programs@camstl.org with as much prior notice possible to ensure availability.
- The conversation will take place in the Performance Space with ample seating.
About the Contributors
Misa Jeffereis is Associate Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, where she organized Haegue Yang: Quasi-Heartland amongst many other exhibitions. Jeffereis holds a Masters in Art History from Hunter College in New York.
Dr. Angela Cooper is the Site Services Specialist II at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. She is an alumna of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 2009, University of Tulsa (TU) 2012 and 2018.
Kassie Kussman is a Cherokee metalsmith and artist whose work bridges Southeastern designs with contemporary form. Through her studio, Mean Right Hook, she transforms copper and silver into modern interpretations of ancestral patterns and symbols.
Veronica Pipestem is an enrolled citizen of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, an Osage headright holder, and is of Citizen and Prairie Band Potawatomi descent. Pipestem owns ItsimiVee, a cultural and natural resources firm that specializes in contract grant writing and in developing practical solutions for small and medium sized museums, cultural centers, and archives.
Lydia Cheshewalla is an Osage ephemeral artist from Oklahoma, living and working in motion throughout the Great Plains ecoregion. Through the creation of site-specific land art and ephemeral installations grounded in Indigenous land stewardship practices and kinship pedagogies, Lydia engages in multivocal conversations about place and relationship.
