Joshua Hinson

MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE:
Inspired by Chikashsha oral history and the woodcarving traditions of the Southeast, these Chikashsha bird effigies are carved in northern white cedar and painted in artists’ oil colors. The effigies are carved with traditional hand tools and decoy making techniques of the Core Sound, North Carolina area, blended with the visual vocabulary of my Mississippian and Chikashsha ancestors. This effigy sculpture is my vision of what an ancestral Chikashsha wood sculpture may have looked like, and honors both my tribal ancestors and the decoy makers of Core Sound. These pieces stand prominently in my body of work, and reflects simultaneously the adherence to tradition and commitment to mediated cultural change, in the pursuit of survivance, of my Chikashsha ancestors.