glory land

the art cycle glory land, to 2013 to 2018, goes beyond big heads sculptures by also including painting, performance, photography, and video components. nina staehli wants to tell the story of the clash between idealism and realism in america along the trail of tears of the deportation of the native americans that the artist has personally traveled by crossing the “bible belt” which corresponds, roughly, to the southern united states of america. The name of this art project comes from a traditional american gospel song where glory land is another name for heaven. in a sense, nina staehli’s performance glory land is a visual anthem for all those who suffer, an acknowledgement of our imperfect humanity and a call to care. it focuses on america as an imperfect promised land. the artist wears a huge sculptural head, covered 360 degrees with long black hair, evoking the eternal disorientation of the human being identified in glory land in the image of the displaced american native as he walks or sits on the sidewalks of crowded city streets or rests on motel beds. photographs document his performance, capturing images of unsuspecting passersby with distracted eyes of either disapproval or curiosity. no one inquires about the need. no one engages in conversation. there are no tears or empathy for the other in this glory land. for two months in 2014, nina staehli traveled across eight u.s. states researching the trail of tears, conducting interviews with descendants of various native tribes, ashamed to be a paleface. as she travels, she draws on paper bags-the ideal medium for those on the road, because they are sturdy, inexpensive, and available everywhere. her subjects include animals, perpetrators, and victims; the predominant colors are red, white, and black, where red represents blood and violence; black and white represent death and mourning. since her trip to the united states, the artist-who works in large-scale cycles, staying on one topic for several years and using different media-has explored the theme of greed. after white people drove out the native tribes, their greed was not satisfied. the artist works on this theme to vent her anger and to oppose the historical injustice that continues to repeat itself in different ways since the dawn of humanity. nina staehli tells her stories as a kind of puppeteer who does not bring her characters to life tied to strings but through oversized heads – big heads – carried on people’s shoulders and creates the figure of tearhead, which represents the displacement of indigenous peoples and their culture, for the film glory land. in the film the viewer hears the heavy breathing of someone running but the figures do not move. the size and weight of the heads make the movements, captured by static shots, slow and swaying. as in all his film performances, the artist works without text or verbal language but still manages to create an emotional atmosphere with his characters, acoustically emphasized by the clank of a train, fragments of a melody or the hum of insects in the summer heat, suggesting that glory land could be anywhere between a train station, a cemetery, a monument, a forest and a casino.