Shelby Head

Shelby Head

Providence, RI

My interdisciplinary practice investigates the social and linguistic constructs that shape identity, history, and collective memory in the United States.

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10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head 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
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Convention of Genocide, 25”x 21”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Nazi Germany, 25”x 21”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: 1862, 18”x 16”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Indian Land for Sale, 18”x 16”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: 1838 Indian Relocation Act, 19.75x 16”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: 1838 Indian Relocation Act, 19.75" x 16”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: 1953: House Concurrent Resolution, 10.5x 14
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: In Recent Years, 10.5x 14”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Indian Appropriations Act, 14”x 18”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Indian Reorganization Act, 14”x 18”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: The Great Plains, 14”x 16.75"
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Ghost Dance 1889, 14”x 16.75"
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Northwest Land Ordinances 1785 and 1787, 13”x 18"
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: Oklahoma Land Rush 1889, 13”x 18”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: 1492, 17”x 15”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of frame: The Root of white supremacy in the Americas, 17”x 15”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: 1604-1814, 12.5x 10.5
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Cultural Heritage, 12.5”x 10.5”
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: American Indian Religious Act, 19.5x 16.25
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Rules Governing the Court of Indian Offenses, 19.25"x 16.25"
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Title frame
10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head by Shelby Head Image: Back of title frame
  • Shelby Head
  • 10_Structural Damage - Shelby Head
  • 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.

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