Athena LaTocha, Untitled (Mesabi #1) 2019, cast iron
Athena LaTocha, Untitled (Mesabi #11) 2019, cast iron
Athena LaTocha, Untitled (Mesabi #2) 2019, cast iron
Athena LaTocha, Untitled (Mesabi #1) 2019, cast iron
So many industrial products of the modern world began life as raw elements, mined from the Earth to begin an artificial process of transformation. Somewhere in that process petroleum becomes Tupperware and molten steel becomes bridges, fence posts, weapons, and machines.
But they also become art.
“You look at all the metal that’s around us, that all came from somewhere,” says New York-based Indigenous artist Athena LaTocha (Standing Rock Lakota and Keweenaw Bay Ojibwe), who spent much of 2019 in Minnesota working on a project related to the mining industry.
“A lot of my work is about movement, gesture, and the mark,” says LaTocha, 52. Her exhibition, Mesabi Redux, is on view at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts through Dec. 25. “Conceptually, it’s about changing the way you think in terms of the approach and the handling of material.”
LaTocha, who was participating in an artist-in-residency program through the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, explored mining from the point of view of the workers, the raw mined material, and the tools used in its excavation and initial processing. The experience, which resulted in a series of untitled abstract cast iron sculptures made during the residency, was an eye opener, she says. It gave LaTocha insight into what’s involved in developing and maintaining infrastructure.
Athena LaTocha, Untitled (Mesabi #11) 2019, cast iron
“Being in New York City, looking at the various tools and equipment that go into working construction operations, you see how they have to excavate, then they have to buttress, and remove all the material to get down into all this other infrastructure: sewer systems, electrical systems, telephone grids,” she says. “We never think about what it takes to support the things we take for granted.”
Mesabi Redux, whose title is a reference to Minnesota’s Mesabi iron range, contains about a dozen sculptures, which range in size from under a foot in height and width to more than 6 feet by 4 feet. The two largest works, Untitled (Mesabi #14) and Untitled (Mesabi #15), both from 2019, are receiving their public premiere. Like the smaller sculptures in the show, they appear minimally worked by LaTocha, who creates conditions in her artistic process that allow for the material (iron) to exist in something close to its natural, molten state once it’s extracted from the ore.
She cast the works by pouring molten iron into a bed of sand, manipulating the iron with an assortment of tools. She worked in much the same way as she did for her previous exhibition at MOCNA, 2017’s Inside the Forces of Nature. That show was an installation of large-scale works on paper in which LaTocha worked in a gestural, fluid motion, using found objects to manipulate the ebb and flow of the ink on the paper. The result was a William Turner-like, landscape-oriented interpretation of the elemental power of nature.
The Mesabi Redux sculptures are not aesthetically pleasing but are not intended to be. LaTocha’s is a more conceptual project. Appreciation comes from seeing the material in something close to an unprocessed state. The sculptures look a lot like something spilled on the floor that solidified into random shapes. The project explores the question of how much artistic intervention is necessary to transform a naturally occurring substance into a work of art. It doesn’t take much.
Athena LaTocha, Untitled (Mesabi #2) 2019, cast iron
“It’s about looking at where things come from and how things are worked,” she says. “One of the things I was fascinated with was how things exist in their natural state. Or what does the material want to do, whether I’m working with ink or with lead, or in this case, with iron? I like finding different ways to encourage the flow, to slow the flow, to draw it out, or pool it. It’s very different than just pouring it into a mold. If you have a mold of something, it’s a very controlled, confined type of event. You pour it in. You crack it out. You finish it. I was looking to break outside of that and collaborate with the material.”
The residency provided LaTocha with an opportunity to get to know an unfamiliar part of the country, despite having Indigenous Midwest ancestry. She spent the majority of her residency in the northeastern part of the state, where the mining operations extend for miles along the highway from Grand Rapids to Chisholm, the site of the Minnesota Museum of Mining.
“The first day that I drove out there, I didn’t know what to expect,” says LaTocha, who conducted hours of research at the mining museum. “It was all new territory. I was driving up the highway to Chisholm, and I remember seeing, to the left and right of the highway, these eerie looking mountains. What it was was the overhaul, overburden, tailings, or taconite, which has some iron ore in it. They were dump piles.”
What was odd about the dump piles was that they rose up out of the surrounding trees, rather than open country, because the Mesabi range is hilly and thick with coniferous forests.
“It was strange to see that. Then, as you’re approaching the Minnesota Museum of Mining, you drive by this really large open-pit mine. The museum has the whole history of mining in that region, captured there in various buildings and equipment that they have installed on their campus. They have this steam shovel that was used to dig the Panama Canal. Then it was used in the Hull–Rust–Mahoning Mine, until it was decommissioned. It really brings home the scope of what it takes to do the actual mining itself.”
In recent years, two-dimensional works on paper have been LaTocha’s primary focus. Working in metal sculpture is a radical departure. She had a preliminary introduction to working with the material and assisted with a foundry crew in the pouring.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if you’re a builder, a weapons manufacturer, an artist. At a certain point, the process the material goes through in its transformation from solid to liquid to utilitarian or artistic object is the same regardless of the iron’s ultimate use. How it’s used — whether for swords or plowshares — is another matter.
“Some of the mining folks out there were saying, ‘In order for us to survive as humans, we either have to mine or grow for our livelihood.’ You look at all the metal that’s around us. That all came from somewhere.”
▼ IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Place
▼ By admission ($10 with discounts available); 505-983-8900, aia.edu/mocna
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Pasatiempo's most popular online content from the past seven days
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.
Stay informed of the latest local news by receiving emails as soon as news is posted online.
Receive a list of headlines from the latest edition of The New Mexican in your inbox every morning.
Contests and special offers from The Santa Fe New Mexican and advertising partners.
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Invalid password or account does not exist
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.
Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
A receipt was sent to your email.