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Demian DinéYazhi’ wishes the glitch art Easter egg in their glowing neon poetry panels at the Whitney Biennial were a better-kept secret.
“I hate when people give away spoilers,” the Portland artist says.
Instead, ArtNet and The New York Times gave away the open secret that letters in DinéYazhi’'s poetry sculpture, titled we must stop imagining apocalypse / genocide + we must imagine liberation, subtly flicker to read “Free Palestine.” CNN also reported that the curators of the Whitney Biennial—a prestigious invitational show in New York City of artists early in their careers—won’t take down DinéYazhi’'s art, but were unaware of the glitch art detail when they chose DinéYazhi’'s piece.
The glitch art (a practice that involves digital or analogue error for aesthetic) would have been discovered eventually, DinéYazhi’ says. But they say that the hype around this one detail takes away from the piece’s larger messages.
“When the sign is first brought out of the box, it’s just a frame and glass, some chemicals and a cord and a plug,” DinéYazhi’ says. “For it to fully activate the message, it needs to be plugged in. For it to be fully complete at a space like the Whitney Museum of Art, it relies on the power of the institution to activate it. It challenges the institution to consider what it means to activate this message.”
While the Whitney chose to stand by them, other institutions have sided with people who oppose DinéYazhi’'s politics, including last summer on a stop of DinéYazhi’'s touring show The Stone Path at the Chehalem Cultural Center’s Parrish Gallery in Newberg. A banner DinéYazhi’ made, reading “Defund the Police / Decolonize the Streets,” was taken down after alleged threats against gallery staff over the piece’s message. When DinéYazhi’ removed all of their remaining work from the show, they wrote a statement that pointed back to CCC’s own inclusivity statement from 2020.
“It’s really ridiculous, because that’s how a lot of my prior work and career was created, through political work, creating confrontation and disruption in the everyday for people,” DinéYazhi’ says.
DinéYazhi’ is a member of the Diné clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá and Tódích’íí'nii. Protest is a recurring theme throughout their multidisciplinary practice, as are Indigenous healing and queerness.
They spoke to WW on May 15, the day marked by Palestinians as Nakba Day, or The Catastrophe, for the lives lost in 1948. DinéYazhi’ links how Gaza’s population have suffered under the Israeli government, using American-supplied weapons, to the centuries of genocide Native Americans have suffered under the United States and colonizers dating back to Columbus.
“We still deal with our language and our traditional ways being disrespected and dishonored,” DinéYazhi’ says. “All of our resources are taken away. All of our access to basic humanitarian resources like water are taken away from our control, our land is put under lease, so yeah, the connections are there.”
DinéYazhi’ often uses poetry, in written form and performance as well as more visual mediums like neon signage or printmaking. They use glitch art, the intentional breaking of a medium for artistic effect, to celebrate failure.
“A lot of my work is about failure and disruption, malfunction [of] systems, exposing broken systems,” DinéYazhi’ says. “My artist statement ends with, ‘I am an artist who is unafraid to fail.’ In that, there is a lot of power in failure.”
Referring back to we must stop imagining apocalypse / genocide + we must imagine liberation, DinéYazhi’ continues:
“The way the red occupies the space, the way the letters flicker and glitch out, I wanted it to also reference an ongoing pulse and energy. I see the glitch as this pulse that is continually moving, that the sign isn’t this stagnant piece.”
DinéYazhi’ is currently back in Portland for a studio residency with Mullowney Printing Company, as they prepare for a June show in New York, where their digital altered print of a painting of the Plymouth Rock Landing, titled The Landing of the Homophobes, will show on a grand scale (DinéYazhi’ isn’t sure how big the print is, other than it’s bigger than their body).
DinéYazhi’ is also printing letterpress pieces for their series Protecting the Sacred Voice, which mixes the style of activist language and fine art.
“I want to excite people and make them think more about what it means to sustain liberation or nurture resistance in communities, but also honoring the voice of artistic freedom and an individual’s rights to free speech,” DinéYazhi’ says.