Borders outline the geographical boundaries of the spaces that we claim as markers of citizenship and membership. They also contour the edges of our lived experience. In this talk Dr. Fellah discusses how Red Star’s art can be viewed through the lens of borders, whether they are the borders of the Crow Reservation where Red Star was born and raised, or the borders that divide nations, like Mexico and the United States. Taking borders as a point of departure, Red Star’s artwork also explores boundaries between race, culture, social spheres, and gender in relation to Native identity. Covering nearly twenty years of Red Star’s artwork, this talk ties the physical spaces of borders to Indigenous history and contemporary culture within the shifting and complex borders of American identity.
Nadiah Rivera Fellah joined the Cleveland Museum of Art as associate curator of contemporary art in November 2019. Beginning in 2015, Dr. Fellah served in various capacities at the Newark Museum in New Jersey. Most recently at Newark, she curated the celebrated exhibition "Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth" and served as the primary author and editor for the accompanying catalogue. Fellah specializes in Latin American and global contemporary art. Her dissertation focused on the role of photography in capturing stories of migration in the US-Mexico borderlands from the 1970s to the present.