Portland State University recently commissioned Sara Siestreem to create a multi-panel painting installation for their Vernier Science Building. night flyers 2023-24) features Siestreem’s Xeroxed hands moving a clam basket through space and extinct Indigenous oyster shells.
"If I were asked what I thought about public monuments, I would say they hold tremendous authority and are presumed good. They undeniably represent power and the values of the dominant culture. At best, they become public pedagogy and teach us who we are and can become.
This monumental painting was commissioned for permanent installation in the Verner Science Building at Portland State University. I am utilizing that authority of public space to exert an Indigenous belief system that understands the land, animals, elements and solar system to be in relation/relatives/related to us and one another, each having the same agency as a human being or nation of humans, collectively. I view this belief system to be nested at the intersection of ecological and social justice. In order to protect the land, we must address the social systems that are superimposed upon it."
– Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos)
