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Erica Lord

2008

Eric and Barbara Dobkin Fellowship

Erica Lord (Athabaskan/Iñupiaq) was born in Alaska, but abiding to her cultural tradition of nomadic living, spent the rest of her years bouncing both physically and metaphorically between her home village in Alaska and the Finnish-American nucleus of Upper Michigan. An interdisciplinary artist, Lord explores the ideas and concepts that grow from the experience of living with a multi-faced identity. Lord explores race, ethnicity, gender, and memory, hoping that through generous doses of narcissism, she will find answers. Lord has exhibited in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Carl N. Gorman Museum, and the Schopf Gallery on Lake in Chicago. She received a B.A. from Carleton College in 2001 and an MFA in Sculpture/Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was most recently a professor of visual arts at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington but has returned to her nomadic roots and is currently investigating her interests in the second season of Twin Peaks, Hip-Hop, Sassy magazine, and her life goal of becoming the world champion of mechanical bull riding.

Erica Lord’s project at the IARC is a process of reconciliation, a means of recognizing and responding to the worlds around her, experiences that seem opposing but exist within her and also within the younger generations she sees around her. Through a series of performances, some for camera and some live, she hopes to address identity and culture in a rapidly changing, expanding, and globalized world.

The School for Advanced Research is pleased to welcome Erica Lord as the 2008 Eric and Barbara Dobkin Fellow.