Nicholas Galanin, Let them enter dancing and showing their faces: Shaman

Nicholas Galanin: My name is Nicholas Galanin, Yéil Ya-Tseen. I'm Tlingit and Unangax, based in Sitka, Alaska.

Narrator: Galanin made the work in the East-facing window of Untitled restaurant—in the direction of the High Line, away from the river. It’s also visible from the Museum’s main lobby, and it’s called Let them enter dancing and showing their faces: Shaman. 

Nicholas Galanin: I like the idea of this work being at the entrance and in Tlingit culture, we have entrance dances where you slowly reveal your face as you enter into the space.

Narrator: The image comes from a monoprint the artist made, depicting a woman in profile. She’s wearing a labret, a lower-lip ornament that is worn by high-ranking women in Tlingit and Unangax communities. 

Nicholas Galanin: I think that reference to an acknowledgement of women is what a lot of our current society needs to move forward in a positive way. 

And it's a reference to these actions that connect us. The actions I'm referencing are the processing of subsistence, smoking our salmon, cleaning the salmon, picking berries, our relationship to land, our relationship to the next generation and our children and that love that's in that process.