Shelby Head

Shelby Head

Providence, RI

My art practice challenges social and linguistic constructs in the United States through precisely crafted artworks organized into collections.

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04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: “Federal Indian law” is the body of United States law – treaties, statutes, executive orders, administrative decisions, and court cases – that define and exemplify the unique legal and political status of the over 550 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. - NARF. (n.d.). The Purple Book. Retrieved January 28, 2021, from https://www.narf.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/purple.pdf
“Federal Indian law” is the body of United States law – treaties, statutes, executive orders, administrative decisions, and court cases – that define and exemplify the unique legal and political status of the over 550 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. - NARF. (n.d.). The Purple Book. Retrieved January 28, 2021, from https://www.narf.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/purple.pdf
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Convention of Genocide, 25”x 21”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Nazi Germany, 25”x 21”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: 1862, 18”x 16”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Indian Land for Sale, 18”x 16”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: 1838 Indian Relocation Act, 19.75x 16”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: 1838 Indian Relocation Act, 19.75" x 16”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: 1953: House Concurrent Resolution, 10.5x 14
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: In Recent Years, 10.5x 14”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Indian Appropriations Act, 14”x 18”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Indian Reorganization Act, 14”x 18”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: The Great Plains, 14”x 16.75"
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Ghost Dance 1889, 14”x 16.75"
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Northwest Land Ordinances 1785 and 1787, 13”x 18"
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Oklahoma Land Rush 1889, 13”x 18”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: 1492, 17”x 15”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: The Root of white supremacy in the Americas, 17”x 15”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: 1604-1814, 12.5x 10.5
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Cultural Heritage, 12.5”x 10.5”
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: American Indian Religious Act, 19.5x 16.25
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Rules Governing the Court of Indian Offenses, 19.25"x 16.25"
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Title frame
04. Structural Damage by Shelby Head Image: Back of title frame
  • Shelby Head
  • 04. Structural Damage
  • Structural Damage, installation, 10 frames, wallpaper, steel piping, text of U.S. Federal Indian Laws, 150”x 76”x 20”, 2023
  • 76 x 150 x 20 in
  • Signature: “Federal Indian law” is the body of United States law – treaties, statutes, executive orders, administrative decisions, and court cases – that define and exemplify the unique legal and political status of the over 550 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. NARF. (n.d.). The Purple Book. Retrieved January 28, 2021, from https://www.narf.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/purple.pdf
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This interactive installation transforms fragments of Federal Indian law into a tactile archive. Mounted on exposed pipes, framed treaties and rulings hang unevenly, evoking fractured histories and contested sovereignty. Viewers are invited to “Touch & Turn,” disrupting legal fixity and revealing partial truths, broken promises, and lingering injustices. Shadows and shifting sightlines expose law as a constructed tool of control, while participation invites reflection on its enduring impact on Indigenous nations.

Other Work From Shelby Head

03. The Fourth Thursday of November by Shelby Head
02. Papered Over by Shelby Head
01. Superiority Complex by Shelby Head
The Wall by Shelby Head
*** **** by Shelby Head
Dark Wall by Shelby Head
Land Acknowledgement by Shelby Head
Then Your Prairies Can Be Covered With Speckled Cattle Video - Joel Daniel Phillips by Shelby Head
Video/Poem - Phetote Mshairi by Shelby Head
Wakurirarat, Sound Installation - Warren Realrider, Nathan Young by Shelby Head
See all artwork from Shelby Head