Untitled Reflections | Kyra Heneghan-Smith

Response to What We Hear in Ceremony by Shawnee Danielle

 I had the honour of witnessing the making of some of Shawnee’s first oil paintings: they were earthy self-portraits threaded lovingly with red beads. If I recall correctly, these paintings were an act of self-exploration, representation, and empowerment. When I reflect on her current body of work, I’m brought back to that vulnerability that she expressed years ago. In Shawnee’s more recent portraits, she uses similar techniques to depict other indigenous peoples – many of whom she has personal connections with. The absence of a background and the soft edges around her subjects brings a dreamlike quality to this series. There is intimacy and life in her portraits, and it is easy to feel the connection between the artist and her subjects.

I experienced Shawnee’s early paintings as an act of claiming space in the fine art world, and her current body of work engages in that same practice of making room for indigenous likeness through portraiture. Shawnee is creating spaces for her subjects to be seen and admired: a display of affection, importance, and personhood. Oil portraiture has a long history of centering white bodies as subjects, and as such, we have a rich archive of Eurocentric representation in fine art. As a white artist, I recognize that my privilege protects me from the experiences that marginalized people have in navigating artist spaces, and I want to acknowledge that privilege in this reflection.

 When experiencing Shawnee’s paintings, I thought back to the black and white photographs taken by Harry Pollard, a white photographer famous for his images of indigenous peoples. I remember hearing about how he posed his subjects and modified his images to capture certain aesthetics in line with what Europeans associated with indigeneity. This most recent body of work by Shawnee adopts ‘traditional’ painting and portraiture techniques - but centers her subjects as individuals as opposed to objects or stereotypes.

Shawnee’s new works are affectionate and vibrant – when I first saw them in person, I was impressed by the range and depth present in her prints – something I didn’t expect from digital paintings. They hold their own on the wall next to her oil paintings. In the time of the pandemic, many artists have turned to digital media as a way of making and sharing art. Shawnee mentions challenging the burden of physical creation and enabling herself to use what she’s able to access. She doesn’t compromise depth, texture, or saturation in her digital works, holding true to the nature of traditional portrait painting. One of the things I’ve learned through this pandemic is the value of digital connection. I used to have a bias against online communication, but since 2020, I’ve noticed so many expressions of community, kindness, and accessible artmaking emerge. Shawnee’s new works are exactly what they need to be: sincere and honest depictions of individuals that she wants to provide refuge for in the art world.