Chaz John, Melting of Columbia. Photo by Brad Trone.
Chaz John, Melting of Columbia. Photo by Brad Trone.
Chaz John, Melting of Columbia. Photo by Brad Trone.
Chaz John, Melting of Columbia. Photo by Brad Trone.
Chaz John, Melting of Columbia. Photo by Brad Trone.
Chaz John, SPIN YA PINS, 2022.
Chaz John, SPIN YA PINS, 2022.
Chaz John, SPIN YA PINS, 2022.

Melting of Columbia

Chaz John, b. 1987 (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska / Mississippi Band Choctaw, European) is a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist living and working in Santa Fe, NM.

Artist Bio

Chaz John is creating a new body of work for a solo show in Santa Fe, NM. He plans to construct a series of large-scale performative actions beginning with a sculpture of the Venus De Milo dressed as the goddess Columbia, a hollow slip-cast mold made of white chocolate. Inside her is a mold of a human baby made of 14K gold, held by a small cradle board, representing the native infant torn apart for the American spectacle, now whole again in precious metal. A group of local Indigenous drummers will sing a round of four songs as the conductive rod inside the Venus De Milo / Columbia will be ceremoniously turned on. The sculpture will then melt from the inside out, revealing the golden child, reborn and bringing a new light through melting the devouring and sweet fat. Once the round of songs is over, the switch will be turned off. The sculpture will be preserved as an object of documentation and the revealing action of beauty, compassion, and anger.

Discipline
Installation, Performance Art, Sculpture, Visual Arts
Award Year
2024
Status

In Progress

Themes
A photo of a Native American man in a large blue foam cowboy hat and red shirt and brown fringe leather jacket sitting down smoking a joint facing the camera with a gray background.

Chaz John

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Chaz John received the Creative Capital Award in 2024. Chaz John, b. 1987 (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska / Mississippi Band Choctaw, European) is a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist living and working in Santa Fe, NM. He grew up in Topeka, a small working-class city in northeastern Kansas. He received his bachelors degree from the Institute of American Indian Art in 2019 and briefly attended their Masters of Fine Arts Program before leaving to pursue tattooing and art full-time. He’s currently developing a new body of work deeply tied to collective dreaming, tattoo imagery, and the parallels of history and tribal story.