At Miami’s Art Basel fair, elephants and a buried ship are bringing out the locals
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Miami Beach hosts Art Basel this week, an annual event that attracts collectors, gallery owners and other art aficionados. That's not all, though. NPR's Greg Allen says there's also public art on display that attracts locals.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: On Miami Beach, the water is blue. There's a cruise ship in the distance, and rising from the sand next to the Faena Hotel are the sails of a buried Spanish galleon. It's an art installation. The person who created it, Nicholas Galanin, is a long way from his home in Sitka, Alaska.
NICHOLAS GALANIN: Yeah. I'm Tlingit-Unangax, and my Tlingit name is Yeil Ya-tseen.
ALLEN: Galanin grew up in a Native Alaskan community where traditional arts like wood carving and jewelry making are treasured. He says he was essentially born into the arts.
GALANIN: So my great grandfather was a totem carver. My father was a artist, a jeweler and a musician, a mentor of mine. My uncle was a mentor and artist, a totem carver, canoe maker and jeweler. So I've been immersed since a young age.
ALLEN: Galanin's art blends traditional techniques like jewelrymaking and wood carving with sculpture, photography and multimedia effects. It's taken him worldwide, with exhibitions in Australia, Italy and an upcoming public art event in the United Arab Emirates. But he says it's important for him to stay connected with his community in Alaska.
GALANIN: I'm trained as a carver in my community. I've led dugout canoe projects. We recently raised a 27-foot totem pole - a kooteeyaa, we call it - in Juneau.
ALLEN: Galanin says his totem was carved in response to a statue that had been unveiled at the Capitol building in Juneau. It was of William Seward, the Secretary of State who negotiated Russia's sale of Alaska to the U.S. It was a sale, Galanin says, that was done without any consideration for the Native people who live there.
GALANIN: A lot of my work investigates land and history and Indigenous sovereignty, Indigenous rights, language.
ALLEN: On Miami Beach, Galanin's piece recalls Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, who ordered his ship sunk after landing in Mexico in the early 1500s. The hull of the ship appears buried in the sand. Twin masts 40 feet high tower over the beach.
GALANIN: And these were the first things that were documented and still orally passed on in our communities that were seen from the horizon - was these sails, like, coming in, right?
ALLEN: On Galanin's sails, there's writing in Spanish and English. It raises questions about colonialism, the environment and the role those who see it have in shaping the future. On a prominent location on Miami Beach, Galanin's ship is getting a lot of attention.
MICHAEL DAVIDSON-SCHMICH: So what's a pirate ship doing on Miami Beach?
ALLEN: Michael Davidson-Schmich was surprised when he came on it. He and his wife, Louise, are Miami locals. Louise says they actually came to see another public art installation several hundred yards up the beach, "The Great Elephant Migration."
LOUISE DAVIDSON-SCHMICH: The elephants are amazing. They're from - they're made by artisans in India - I guess Indigenous people - to kind of highlight environmental or sustainability kind of issues. And I guess they're all models of actual elephants in the wild that the people observed and knew and made replicas of.
ALLEN: The elephants are made from an invasive weed found in India's forests. The project is a fundraising effort supporting conservation groups that's traveling across the country. The reception here has been especially enthusiastic, so much so that the Miami Herald reports a security guard had to oust a couple he found after hours engaged in amorous activity on top of one of the elephants.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami Beach.
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