The Secret Project with Our Friend | Alyzza May
Alyzza May (Greensboro, NC) | December 2021
Our friend, permanent marker, painters tape, laminate, chairs, Polaroid photos, found paper.
Only Indigenous hands may handle Our Friend.
Focusing on home, place, belonging, the hyper-visibility and invisibility of Indigenous peoples, and a decolonial deconstruction of time, The Secret Project with Our Friend takes on Elsewhere and frees Our Friend across the entirety of the space and beyond the confines of the museum. When the artist came to Elsewhere they instantly connected to Our Friend who was prominently displayed in The Tower, an Indigenous person behind glass, out of context, and casually on display for all to pass by and ignore, historicize, forget, or disregard. The artist built a relationship with Our Friend, and together determine where Our Friend really wanted to be. Together they create a community found across the building, Our Friend is no longer alone, and actively engages with this institution.
The process of creation is emergent, and involves following leads. This brings us to Our Friends presence on three of Elsewhere’s seats, with three distinct messages for Natives and non-Natives alike. The chairs each read, “This was never the Gray’s, it’s eternally Indigenous,” “Islands of Decolonial Love: Conversations btwn N8VS.” Did you have a seat? Did you notice?
Our Friend is Free.
This piece is in conversation with all of Elsewhere, it’s embeddedness in this place, on unceded land. It responds to the place Our Friend was initially housed, where they are rehomed, and in direct conversations around decolonial futures, protection and queer joy with Vickie Aravindhan's three Yali mask works.
Deep gratitude to Our Friend, and Jess Hoyle.
