My partner and I have been watching new the season of True Detective over the past few weeks, an episode at time, like the old days. It takes place in a remote Alaskan town that emerged with the opening of the mine. Before the miners began to arrive, indigenous had been living on the land and the conflict between the indigenous and the newcomers is at the heart of the show. Jodie Foster, who plays the police chief, is skeptical and often aggressive toward the beliefs and culture of the indigenous people still living in the area. The show blends well what we might call the supernatural with a gritty procedural. The conflict between the two cultures is a conflict that indigenous people face in California as well.
Frank Tuttle is a Native Californian artist who explores through the visual arts the tension of tradition in contemporary contexts. Here’s what he describes as the driver in a lot of his art:
“I enjoy a particular thrill in being able to contrast and compare fragments of the old and new order. There exists a continuum of the tradition of the vision quest in which the new visions, as works of art, are informed by both Indian traditions and the modern art traditions.”
I find integration projects like what he is describing to be so powerful and beautiful. This is my favorite of his pieces: