Posted: February 15, 2024
Pulitzer Prize winning Diné composer and sound artist Raven Chacón, who earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in music at The University of New México will bring his Three Songs projects to the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. Three Songs pays tribute to Indigenous women through sound, video, and visual work.
The opening celebration for Raven Chacón: Three Songs is Friday, Feb. 23, starting with a Member + Director’s Circle Preview from 4:30–6:30 p.m. A public reception will be from 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Raven Chacón: Three Songs brings together three of his projects that pay tribute to Indigenous women through sound, video, and visual work. In the series For Zitkála-Šá (2018), Chacón created musical arrangements dedicated to different contemporary Indigenous, First Nation, or Mestiza women working in music performance, composition, or sound art.
The video installation Three Songs (2021) features Indigenous women singing as they reoccupy sites of historic massacres, displacement, or relocation of tribal people. The final work, Silent Choir (2016-2017), is a field recording Chacón made while taking part in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, which captures the silent protest of 600 water protectors facing police and security forces. These works presented in unison resound suppressed histories and present-day stories of Native resistance in the face of systemic power.
Chacón is a Diné (Navajo) composer, performer, and installation artist born in Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation and based in Albuquerque, N.M. As a solo artist, Chacon has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Kennedy Center, and the Whitney Museum, among others. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2022 and the prestigious MacArthur Genius Fellowship in 2023.
For Zitkála-Šá performances: Saturday, Feb. 24: Kona Mirabal and Masa Rain Mirabal; Saturday, April 6: Autumn Chacon, who studied political science and media art at UNM; Saturday, May 4: Laura Ortman; Friday, June 7: Marisa DeMarco
Raven Chacon: Three Songs is made possible by the generous support of Montaner Charitable Trust, UNM Academic Technologies, Lina and Jim Beckley in honor of Gus Foster and Alexandra Benjamin, Gus Foster, Dianne Frost, Sheree Livney and Steve Hanks, Laura Medley, Janet Holmberg and Shawn Berman, Dora and Carl Dillistone, Richard B. Siegel Foundation, and Liz Neely. Additional support provided by Larry Bell Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art and Tally Richards Fund for Exhibitions.
The Harwood Museum of Art is part of the UNM branch campus. It is located at 238 Ledoux St., Taos, NM 87571.
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