Duane Linklater's Indigenous Materialism Examined in Critical Review of 80WSE Installation

A review essay published on June 5, 2018 analyzes Duane Linklater's site-specific installation 'From Our Hands' at New York City's 80WSE Gallery. The Omaskêko Cree artist from Northern Ontario employs indigenous institutional critique through his work, which challenges conventional assumptions about materiality. Linklater's practice reconfigures postconceptual artistic strategies to address the specific aesthetic, political, and ontological concerns of colonized native populations. The essay examines qualities like durability, 'leakiness,' and sincerity in his installation, contrasting them with abstract tendencies in new materialist discourse. This approach offers nuanced perspectives on environmental racism, nonhuman ontologies, and indigenous cultural economies organized around non-capitalist labor and kinship structures. The review appears as the indigenous contemporary art field gains increased attention, positioning Linklater's work as significant within this context. The full article is available through MIT Press with subscription access on artmargins.com.