Nicholas Galanin

, Nicholas Galanin created this work with the same steel tubing used to construct the U.S.-Mexico border wall, also echoing its 30-foot height. The metal was cut and reassembled to spell out LAND in a format reminiscent of Robert Indiana's 1966 sculpture, LOVE. The anti-climbing plate seen atop the border wall appears here on the upper letters, and the text repeats in four layers to create a dynamic, open structure. As our point of view changes, the text shifts between legibility and abstraction., Galanin is a member of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (b. 1979 Sitka; Lingít and Unangax̂). As an Indigenous person, he practices subsistence in his homeland. For him, the free movement of life is essential, and all life is deeply connected to Land. Galanin adapts aspects of pop art and minimalism, such as repetition, text, and industrial production, to protest oppressive systems of division and control. The title, In every language there is Land / En cada lengua hay una Tierra, combines English and Spanish, two languages imposed in North America since colonization. The work reminds us that Indigenous peoples persist and permeate borders despite the forcible removal of rights, languages, and access to Land and Water. For Galanin, "barriers to Land directly reflect barriers to love, love for Land, for community and for future generations." , - Nicholas Baume , Artistic and Executive Director, Public Art Fund, Public Art Fund offers gratitude to the Lenape, original people of the land on which we are now based. We acknowledge the genocide and force removal of the Lenape nations from Lenapehoking, their homeland. We honor the many First Nations peoples who continue to live and work in this region today.,