Auto Immune Response no. 5
Will Wilson, Citizen of the Navajo Nation (Diné), born 1969
Diné (Navajo)
Southwest
2004
Archival pigment print
3/3
Overall: 44 × 110 in. (111.8 × 279.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the William S. Rubin Fund
© Will Wilson Image courtesy the artist
2019.6
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Southwest
Photograph
Not on view
Label
The science-fictional, post-apocalyptic future in Auto Immune Response no. 5 alludes to the indelible and harmful effects of uranium mining on Navajo homelands between 1944 and 1986. Artist Will Wilson places himself within this large-scale panoramic photo and invokes the imagery of the Hero Twins, who appear in Diné Bahane’, the Navajo creation myth. Wearing gas masks to protect themselves from the toxic environment, the twins look directly into the camera with bloodshot eyes while an unknown substance streaks down their faces. Here, “autoimmune” suggests that harmful human intervention of the environment is inextricable from equally harmful effects on the body.
In the artist’s words, "Auto Immune Response takes as its subject the quixotic relationship between a post-apocalyptic Diné (Navajo) man and the devastatingly beautiful, but toxic environment he inhabits. The series is an allegorical investigation of the extraordinarily rapid transformation of Indigenous lifeways, the “dis-ease” it has caused, and strategies of response that enable cultural survival."
From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
NAS 35, ENGL 32.01, Native American Literature, Melanie Benson Taylor, Spring 2019
NAS 32.01, ENGL 53.02, Indian Killers: Murder and Mystery, Melanie Benson Taylor, Spring 2019
NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2020
NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2020
NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2020
ANTH 55, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2021
NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021
NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021
NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021
ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022
GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Winter 2022
ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022
ANTH 12.26, Environmental Justice, Maron Greenleaf, Winter 2022
LACS 80.02/AAAS 90.01/GOVT 84.06, Identity and Power, Lisa Baldez, Winter 2022
GEOG 11.01, Qualitative Methods, Abigail Neely, Winter 2022
ANTH 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022
Exhibition History
This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Luise and Morton Kaish Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–July 22, 2022.
Publication History
John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 57, ill. fig. 8.13.
Provenance
Will Wilson Art & Photo LLC, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to present collection, 2019.
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