This Land is Your Land
My project is named ‘This Land is Your Land’ and is a mix of photography, collage and video.
‘This Land Is Your Land’ is a multimedia project that explores the history of the U.S. National Park system and the lands upon which they have been created. The work is an examination of the seizure of, and recreational uses of, ancestral Indigenous lands from the perspective of a Black veteran.
In search of healing and contemplation after his time in the U.S. Air Force, and a traumatising close-call from a fellow wingman. Winters began visiting Glacier National Park in northern Montana in hopes of escape. He answered the call to the wild that many naturalists, artists, and writers have answered before him, but beyond the alluring landscapes and solitude that were promised, Winters found that the influences of imperialism and the fetishization of the American outdoors were not unlike those he encountered during his time in service.
‘This Land is Your Land’ encourages viewers to parse through contrasting materials that paint this area of northern Montana as both intrinsically “American” and intrinsically stolen and Indigenous. Viewers will be encouraged to reconcile their own ideas and emotions regarding American mysticism and the colonialism that permeates all facets of our culture, even those as remote and “untouched” as rural Montana.
Find out more:
Website: www.isaiahrw.com
Instagram: @isaiahrw
