Every Object Has A Ritual

First edition of Every Object Has A Ritual by Selena Kearney (2023)

First impression 

Medium format hardback (chopped boards) in new condition 

About

Photographer Selena Kearney deftly pulls viewers into a complex dialogue through her series “Object / Ritual.” Over five years, she acquired, borrowed, and was given an array of costumes, masks, clothing, and sports fanwear that reference Native American regalia, and stereotypes of Indigenous culture.

Photographing each in an isolated black box format, Kearney summoned her own pained curiosity, while through this visual choice offered rebuke to how sacred artifacts from Indigenous cultures have been similarly displayed as trophies in many museums and cultural institutions. In Kearney’s photographs, the cheap materiality of most of the objects draws attention to exaggerated associations under the guise of representing the homogenized “Indian.”

Every Object Has A Ritual is presented in a format commonly associated with children’s picture books, demonstrating in its physicality how cultural harm has been perpetrated in seemingly innocuous ways. Publication of this series pushes against the ongoing use of Indigenous mascots to represent national and regional sports teams, and against the sanitized language that has been eagerly embraced by mainstream settler culture to minimize the violent and manipulative histories experienced by First Nations in the formation of what is now the United States.