About the artwork
Leonard Getinthecar
Space Invaders, 2013
Dimensions(h x w x d): 45" x 54.5"
Acrylic and ink on deer hide
Located in Fariborz Maseeh Hall, basement level, north corridor
Space Invaders uses familiar imagery from the 1980s Space Invaders video game, but replaces elements of the game with images of teepees and arrows. The piece communicates a critical commentary on the taking of indigenous lands through European colonization. The painted hide combines historically significant Indigenous materials with what is now historical gaming technology, to explain the reality of the invasion of the Americas to non-Indigenous viewers using the lens of a "space alien invasion," which is familiar to contemporary non-Indigenous and Indigenous viewers alike. The "space aliens" have no relationship to the land they seek to invade, just as the invaders of the Americas had no relationship to the land they sought to exploit for profit.
About the artists
Leonard Getinthecar is the collective name of a collaboration between brothers Nicholas (Tlingit/Aleut) and Jerrod (Tlingit/Unangan) Galanin, Alaskan artists of Native descent who also each have their own separate practices. Nicholas is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician whose work often explores a dialogue of change and identity between Native and non-Native communities; specializing in silver and copper engraving and jewelry design, Jerrod also works in a variety of mediums, including paint, fur and fish skin, photography, and installation sculpture.
Learn more about the brothers' work on Nicholas and Jerrod's websites.
This work was acquired through Oregon's Percent for Art in Public Places Program, managed by the Oregon Arts Commission.
Banner image courtesy of the artists.