Raised in the Alaskan community of Nome, on the coast of the Bering Sea, Sonya Kelliher-Combs traces her family lineage to the northernmost reaches of Utqiaġvik and the central inland town of Nulato. Now based in Anchorage, her Inupiaq And Athabascan origins, cultural heritage and relationship to the land form the core around which her multidisciplinary work revolves.
Growing up in a rural community, Kelliher-Combs observed and learned “time-honored traditional women’s and collective labor—skin sewing, beading, and food preparation—that helped her appreciate the intimacy of intergenerational knowledge and material histories,” says one artist. statement in the foreword of the artist’s new monograph, Marking.
Published by Hirmer Verlag, the book explores the scope of Kelliher-Combs’ practice, from paintings, sculptures and installations to her work as a curator and as a community advocate.
Using the materials and symbolism of ancestral, indigenous knowledge, Kelliher-Combs addresses what she describes as “the ongoing struggle for self-determination and identity in the context of Alaska,” delving into history, culture, family, and long-held to use.
The works “also speak to abuse, marginalization and the historical and contemporary struggles of indigenous peoples in the North and globally,” her statement continued. In ‘Goodbye’, for example, 52 gloves and mittens are collected together as if they are saying goodbye together.
The moving installation was intended to spark dialogue on the sensitive topic of suicide, the rate of which at the time Kelliher-Combs created the piece was nearly 52 Native Alaskans per 100,000.more than threefold the age-adjusted rate among Americans in general. The mittens were all handmade and loaned by members of the local community.
Through delicate, tactile sculptures and atmospheric paintings, the artist honors ancient ancestral practices such as the preparation of animal skins, while exploring how contemporary materials such as plastic and fossil fuels transform the landscape. She often works with cards, thread, beads, hair and fabric.
Kelliher-Combs also combines organic and synthetic materials, blending the traditional with the new; the local with the imported. She describes how she “moves beyond the binary divisions of Western and indigenous cultures, self and others, and human and nature, to explore the interrelationships and interdependencies of these concepts.”
See more of the artist’s work about her websiteand find your copy of Marking on Bookstore.
