Photo by Tess Scheflan
Photo by Tess ScheflanFall 2020 Public Artist Resident
Artist Statement
Lilly E. Manycolors is a tri-racial single mother of African-American, Anglo-Australian and Choctaw heritage. She is an interdisciplinary artist known for her emotionally-excavating artworks and performances. Manycolors’ artistic works are deeply rooted in a psycho-spiritual process that is greatly informed by her journey of reconnecting to her Afro-Choctaw histories and traditions, reconciling her Anglo-colonizer heritage, and the Anishinaabe teachings gifted to her by Anishinaabe elder’s in her life. Her art focuses on Planetary and human conditions, bringing into conversation experiences of otherness, transformation, trauma and healing, gender, and possibilities of being one’s complex self.
Through her pieces she invites her audience to traverse vast emotional terrains with her and explore the depths of beingness together. How do we feel and accept the fullness of pain and suffering, and still believe we will survive them? What relationships are we cultivating between our own body and the bodies of others? How do we live in the in-between spaces, and live well? These questions and more she brings alive through her various art forms, mostly self-taught, including visual art, sculpture, installation, dance, poetry, and performance art.
Manycolors’ work during the residency will focus on the visual reparation of the local Indigenous Tribes of the Boston area in the present and future fate of humanity through mixed media.
Conceptualized by Lilly E. Manycolors (Tri-racial Anglo-Australia/Black/Choctaw) Created by Lilly E. Manycolors in partnership with Andre Strongbearheart Gaines Jr. (Nipmuc) Fall 2020.
As a tri-racial mother and artist, Lilly Manycolors‘ work is founded in decolonial embodiment and multiplicity. Her work aims to center Indigenous voices to support the futurity of Indigenous people in their rightful place within Turtle Island. Her work this residency will focus on the reparation of Indigenous people in the present and future fate of humanity through mixed media.
Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines Jr. is of the Nipmuc people, a strong cultural steward, a father, public speaker, traditional dancer, poet, recovery coach and educator. His work is founded in cultural preservation and revitalization of his people.
It was important for Manycolors to prioritize getting permission from the Massachusett Tribe to install her sculpture as it occupied their territory. Per her residency requirements she additionally obtained permission from the Boston Art Commission with the caveat that it was the Massachusett Tribe’s permission that should be prioritized by the BCA and all public art projects being that all installations and projects occupy Massachusett Tribal territory. The text of Manycolors’ application is reflected in the text on the Emanaction Sculpture which includes a land and tribal acknowledgement by Elizabeth Solomon of the Massachusett Tribe. The South End has been and is the traditional homelands of the Massachusett people.
Photo by Tess Scheflan
Randi Hopkins
Photo by Tess Scheflan
Photo by Tess Scheflan
Photo by Tess Scheflan
Photo by Tess Scheflan
Photo by Tess Scheflan
EMANATION: INDIGENOUS FURTHERANCE A SCULPTURE ON THE CONTINUAL PRESENCE OF THE LOCAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.
“Indigenous people never went extinct. We are still here. Indigenous people must be restored to their rightful place in the cultural structure on the Americas. The health and wellbeing of the planet requires Indigenous people to be liberated and sovereign.”
Conceptualized by Lilly E. Manycolors (Mixed Choctaw) Created by Lilly E. Manycolors in partnership with Andre Strongbearheart Gaines Jr. (Nipmuc Tribe) Fall 2020
As a mixed Indigenous womxn and artist, Manycolors’ work is founded in decolonial embodiment and multiplicity. Her work aims to center Indigenous voices and stories to support the restoration of Indigenous people in their rightful place within the cultural structure of Turtle Island. Her work this residency will focus on the reparation of Indigenous people in the present and future fate of humanity through mixed media.
Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines Jr. is of the Nipmuc people, a strong cultural steward, a father, public speaker, traditional dancer, poet, recovery coach and educator. His works are founded in cultural preservation and revitalization.
In addition to applying for permission from Boston Art Commission for temporary public art project, Lilly applied to the Massachusett Tribe for their permission to use the land for this project. The text of the application is reflected in the text on the art work itself; the back of the carved and painted work includes a land acknowledgment that the South End has been, is, and will continue to be the traditional lands of the Massachusett people.
“Changing the landscape of Boston to portray the presence of Indigenous people contributes to Boston’s inhabitants being educated on the true history of Massachusetts. With knowledge comes the opportunity for growth. It is my intention that this sculpture contribute to evolving the Boston landscape to reflect the local Indigenous people and in turn contribute to making their stories visible and heard. With this sculpture the local non-Indigenous inhabitants have an opportunity to engage in decolonial history and possibly contribute to changing the culture to support Indigenous people instead of causing genocide.”