In her paper and origami piece Indians, brunette legs emerge from a white dress made up of phrases from Sherman Alexie’s “Toughest Indian in the World.” The word “Indian” appears 43 times in this little dress.
Charging said the play refers to this state of knowing, waiting and fighting for basic human rights. The piece serves as a reminder of the language used in the treaties and how they still affect Native Americans today, she said.
“Essentially, a lot of my work is inspired by my memories of growing up on the reservation,” Charging said. “I feel like a lot of the ways I live, the ways I behave are always based on what my parents taught me and it’s a whole different world view.”
The Wind River Reservation is home to the tribe to which Charging’s mother belonged, the Eastern Shoshone, and also the Northern Arapaho. She said the reservation felt disconnected from the real world.
“When I was growing up, I remember always feeling like the outside world was on TV. It wasn’t really real,” she said. “When I left the reservation, I felt that we are not real to outsiders, because most people cannot conceive of what the reservation is.”
Charging is a Master of Fine Arts student at the University of Louisville. She said some of her art depicts furniture she remembers from the reservation or includes colors she associates with her home.
She wants viewers to step back and analyze the “layers” of her work and has steered clear of overtly political themes, she said.
“Over the years, when I’ve presented specific artwork to please, talking about the truth, which is Native American history,” Charging said. “People weren’t, I don’t want to say turned off, but like they had this attitude like ‘What do you want me to do?’
But politics and history are still embedded in his work. He focuses on the racist legacy of redlining in a recent series.
In Charging’s studio are many red maps of Louisville, which inspired a number of his works.
“I want you as a viewer to come and be like, ‘Whoa, what am I looking at here?'” she said. “And then the more you look, the more you see.”
Charger also has a real estate license, which she says gives her a unique perspective on the history of racist housing practices in the country.
“The history that we have, the land that we live on, it’s like it never goes away. People think like, ‘Oh, it’s a clean slate,'” she said. “But underneath it all is this history. In my artwork I not only deal with Native American history, but also the history that everyone else has to deal with.”
Last year, Charging created a series of paintings titled “Under All is the Land” focusing on immigration and belonging in the United States. The title is the first line of the preamble of the National Associations of Realtors Ethical codewhich he said highlights a contradiction in modern society.
“Most people think of buying a house as a great investment, but at the end of the day, we’re all going to die,” he said. “Where is this house going?”
Charging’s work is currently on display at the University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute Studio in the Portland neighborhood.
