FREE

Join 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial for the opening reception for Laura Youngbird’s installation Mishipechu. Mishipechu is a powerful and important underwater creature. To the Anishinaabe, Ottawa, Menominee, Shawnee and Cree tribes, Mishipechu is also known as the Great Lynx with the head and paws of a great cat, a lizard-like body, covered in scales with spikes along its back and tail. Mishipechu is the embodiment of power with the dual role of protector and destroyer, known for protecting the water and guarding  vast amounts of copper. They are said to live in the deepest parts of lakes and rivers, where they can cause storms. There are consequences of misusing resources.

Laura Youngbird is an artist and art educator with a BS, BFA, and MA from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a minor in American Indian Studies. She’s an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa, Grand Portage Band. The themes in her work originated from experiences her family and particularly her grandmother had while at boarding schools and issues that surrounded their assimilation into non-Indian culture. Laura also explores the influences of Christianity on American Indian Spirituality and life views.