ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Sue Ellen Herne is a contemporary Mohawk artist from the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory in upstate New York.  Herne works with paintings and mixed media such as quilts and traditional Mohawk compositions. Many of her pieces represent home and the feeling of belonging associated with it. A member of the Indigenous art movement, Herne emphasizes Indigenous identity and culture, a theme exemplified in the above piece, Our Spirits Don’t Belong Here, in which Herne creates a commentary on the whitewashing and erasure of Indigenous culture.

The painting’s expressionist style heightens its somber and haunting mood. In the center, five solemn, blue, and blocky figures sit on a brown couch. The brushwork is loosely textured around them, presenting them as the focal point. The surrounding light implies that these are the spirits the title refers to; none has a face, signifying a loss of identity. The figures’ red bows may represent the loss of individuality amongst the Indigenous community, and their black hair may reflect their Indigenous identity. The figures look small and displaced on the couch, a visual representation of how they do not “belong” in this whitewashed context. There is a table with bows circled around it, exhibiting them perhaps as masks the spirits wear to belong in the whitewashed world. In the background, four blue windows, a pink wall, and a black floor in a dull color palette show the uniform nature of this world. A green splatter on the wall, an intentional mistake prevalent in Indigenous art, reflects how people are imperfect. Through mixing aspects of traditional Indigenous art with expressionist techniques, Sue Ellen Herne highlights the loss of identity many Indigenous people experience. They struggle to feel at home in a world that treats them as if they do not belong.
– Abigail Smith ’26

 

Sue Ellen Herne
Our Spirits Don’t Belong Here, 2010s
Oil on canvas with wax
Gift of the artist
Richard F. Brush Art Gallery
SLU 2016.13

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