On the site of a former coal strip-mine in Illinois sits a monumental earthwork by Michael Heizer, Effigy Tumuli. I have conflicting feelings about Heizer’s land art, which has received warranted criticism, especially since he recently completed City. I understand his artistic vision with Effigy Tumuli, having read quite a bit about it, yet I think it is imperative for those of us who are not Indigenous (he and I) to refrain from drawing on cultures that are not our own.

Heizer appropriated Native American burial mounds to create Effigy Tumuli as a reclamation project back in the 1980s. It is impressive in scale and successful in restoring a more natural habitat along the Illinois River, but that does not erase the issue of appropriation. In my own work I strive to avoid incorporating traditions that are not my own, but I figure that I have probably unintentionally done so in the past. When I learn and know better, I try to do better, and will continue to do so. Course corrections are important while on a journey, as a human and as an artist, as is acknowledging ignorance and mistakes.

There’s so much I could go on about with Heizer, but that would take a book instead of a blog post, so I’ll leave that work to the expert art historians and critics. For me as an artist, my installation on top of Effigy Tumuli is layered and complex, leaving me with much to think about and question. (I’m quite okay with having unanswered questions regarding my work, for myself and for others.) I’m not sure if it was permissible to make my way to the top of the section known as the Frog (the grass was mown like a path); it did feel a bit like a small act of artistic rebellion against Heizer to be up there.