{"id":16634,"date":"2017-04-20T22:53:37","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T22:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16634"},"modified":"2023-10-02T23:03:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T23:03:37","slug":"dine-student-honors-family-with-exhibit-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2017\/04\/20\/dine-student-honors-family-with-exhibit-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Din\u00e9 student honors family with exhibit, performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE<\/strong>
\nSPECIAL TO THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\u00a0ALBUQUERQUE<\/strong> \u2013 In the 1930s, Angela Ashley, a Din\u00e9 weaver from Burnt Water, Arizona, lost most of her sheep to the Bureau of Indian Affairs livestock reduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe lost hundreds of sheep,\u201d says Eric-Paul Riege, Ashley\u2019s great-grandson.<\/p>\n

Riege is Naaneesht\u2019\u00e9zhi T\u00e1chii\u2019nii (Black Charcoal Streak of Red Running into the Water People), born for B\u00e9\u00e9sh Bich?ahii\u201d (Metal Hat People-German).<\/p>\n

Recalling stories by his mother, Retha Duffy-Riege, he said the colonial government intervention devastated his great-grandmother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was her livelihood. She depended upon it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After their sheep economy was ruined, Riege\u2019s family eventually moved to Gallup where he grew up.<\/p>\n

Now, in his early 20s, Riege is completing a bachelor\u2019s degree in fine arts with a minor in Navajo linguistics at the University of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Following in his great-grandmother\u2019s footsteps, Riege is a fiber artist who works with a variety of natural materials and dyes. He\u2019s also a performance artist and creates digital presentations.<\/p>\n

As he works on a weaving in Masley Hall, an art building on the north side of campus, he shares more of his family\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a belief that if you don\u2019t finish a weaving, your life will not continue the way you want it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Riege attributes his great-grandmother\u2019s long life to her many beautifully woven weavings.<\/p>\n

Passing away in 2005 when Riege was 10, Ashley lived to be 101.<\/p>\n

Turning to the weaving he\u2019s working on, Riege says that his work brings back good memories for his mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I beat the loom and my mom hears it, she says it takes her back 50 years when my great-grandmother was weaving and she was rolling balls of yarn for her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When his mom helps him with a weaving, Riege says with a smile, the process creates a special bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery inch of the yarn goes through her hands and then goes through mine. I see that as a collaboration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As he grasps a string on the loom, Riege relates how weaving becomes the teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a gap in your weaving, it\u2019s telling you to slow down,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the edges, if you pull a little too hard, that\u2019s a sign that you\u2019re angry. You never want to be angry when you\u2019re weaving, because you\u2019ll be able to see it all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

When this most recent work is finished, Riege says it will reflect both the federally imposed boundaries of the Navajo Nation and the much wider ancestral ones.<\/p>\n

Riege\u2019s weaving is one piece of his large fiber art installation entitled \u201cDib\u00e9 Hozho Yitl\u2019o\u201d that will be presented during the \u201cArts Unexpected,\u201d 2017 festival.<\/p>\n

The pop-up art installation and performance across the UNM Albuquerque campus takes place Friday, April 28.<\/p>\n

Dibe\u00e9 Hozho Yitl\u2019o (\u201csheep weaving happiness\u201d) can be found in front of Zimmerman Library (Smith Plaza) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

Riege\u2019s installation is his bachelor\u2019s degree honors thesis.<\/p>\n

As he adjusts the loom and then rhythmically beats down on the colored strings, he says his family\u2019s stories are woven into the exhibit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese stories have created my identity as an indigenous person,\u201d he says adding that the project has given him the ability to navigate his life through hozho, the Navajo philosophy of being connected to each other and finding balance in life.<\/p>\n

Sharing that sense of hozho, the 6-by-11-feet fiber structure will give visitors the opportunity to enter a hogan, sense its beauty and the spiritual connection to the weaver.<\/p>\n

The exterior will take visitors through the weaving process. Inside they will see work created by his great-grandmother, aunt and several of his own.<\/p>\n

Along with the installation, Riege will present a one-person performance between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

His performance will bring to life the events of the 1930s that altered his family\u2019s lifestyle and history.<\/p>\n

Picking up a curved fiber mantle made out of rug that\u2019s been in his family for many decades, Riege puts it over his shoulders.<\/p>\n

Then, walking a little bent over, he shows how he\u2019ll use sticks for legs and play one of his great-grandmother\u2019s brave sheep that was able to escape capture during the BIA\u2019s livestock reduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be exploring; looking for my great-grandmother and her hogan,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

During the performance, Riege says, \u201cThis will be a moment for me to meditate and to celebrate my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riege, the first in his family to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree, will graduate in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited it feels really good to graduate,\u201d he said. \u201cWith everything my family has done for me, it\u2019s a group achievement, not an achievement as one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riege says his parents, Retha and Ken Riege, nurtured his academic endeavors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are really proud of the work that I do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another opportunity to meet Riege and see and experience his show is from June 5 to 16 at the CFA Downtown Studio (4th Street and Central). An opening reception is June 9 from 6 to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

After he graduates, Riege plans to work with Orlando Walker, Din\u00e9, at the Shallow Gallery, a space for indigenous artists in Gallup located on Coal Avenue.<\/p>\n

There, Riege says, he will keep sharing what he\u2019s learned from the women in his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHozho \u2013 walk in beauty!\u201d he exclaims.<\/p>\n

Information: ericpaulriege. com and artsunexpected.unm. edu.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SUBMITTED<\/p>\n

UNM fi ne arts student Eric-Paul Riege, Din\u00e9, works on a weaving that will be integrated into his larger fi ber art installation during a one day pop-up art experience in front of Zimmerman Library in Albuquerque on April 28.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE SPECIAL TO THE TIMES \u00a0ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 In the 1930s, Angela Ashley, a Din\u00e9 weaver from Burnt Water,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16637,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16634\/revisions\/16637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}