Lance Twitchell

Alaska
Writing
Artist in Residence, 2018
↗ www.troubledraven.com

Artist Statement

When I think back on the history of the place where I live, teach, create, raise my family, hunt, fish, and sleep, I see Tlingit and Haida people who put magnificence into everything they ever made. There is no separation of art and life. Everything is created with the idea of reaching into the knowledge of the past, incorporating visions currently received, and focusing on the path for future generations. In life and art, I look for boundaries and identify which ones require resistance, deconstruction, reconstruction, and development. Identity and understanding are fluid and plural, yet the histories of violence and oppression influence and shape everything in the world because the past, present, and future exist in the same plane at the same time. Everything is a translation. Everything can exist in multiple languages simultaneously. Resist. Fight. Survive. Thrive. That is what art is to me.

While At Headlands

While at Headlands I plan on working on a series of multimedia projects with the goal of creating materials that are ready to publish. The first is a collection of poetry that contains existing work from the past ten years and new work that will be assembled according the arising theme(s). The second is a comic book that incorporates Northwest Coast Native Design and illustrations and is written in the Tlingit language. If time and focus allows, I will also be working on some separate Northwest Coast formline design projects, some short films that are designed to artistically promote and teach the Tlingit language, and some electronic music projects. These projects are unconnected, but they represent various creative and analytic areas that help shape each other and challenge the boundaries of medium, language, audience, message, and delivery method.

Selected Sound Recordings and Videos

“Eesháan Gawdáan,” 2015