The Sacred Outlaw Temple

Unmaking the American Artist

Episode Summary

Artist Tim Buwalda on American Myth, Ancestry, and Art Beyond Ownership

Episode Notes

Link to podcast video: https://youtu.be/J1Gh5ZD9_6w

For nearly three decades, artist Tim Buwalda has examined the wreckage beneath American certainty: automobiles, monuments, domestic aspiration, violence, progress, and the unstable mythology we call freedom.

But lately, another mythology has begun to fracture inside his practice: the artist as origin, owner, authority, and suffering genius.

In this conversation, Tim and his longtime friend Cyren Naôs explore what changes when an artist understands himself not as the sole creator of the work, but as a participant in something older, larger, and not entirely his.

They speak about American mythology, artistic ego, authorship and ownership, Tim’s evolving relationship with his Cherokee inheritance, and the responsibility of working alongside Native artists without turning relationship into resource.

What happens when an artist stops asking, “What can I make from this?” and begins asking, “What is asking to be made—and what kind of relationship would allow me to meet it?”

Explore Tim’s work:

timbuwalda.com
Instagram: @buwaldatim

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