Santa Ana
Ruben Olguin, Mestizo / American, born 1983
2019
Wood, wire lathe, adobe, hand-foraged clay, reclaimed tin, leather
Overall: 14 15/16 × 11 3/16 × 1 7/8 in. (38 × 28.4 × 4.7 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Acquisitions and Preservation of Native American Art Fund
2020.22.7
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Mixed Media
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Southwest
Mixed Media
On view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, upper right, in black marker: Santa Ana
Label
Using locally sourced clay and hand-harvested dyes, artist Ruben Olguin reappropriates the Spanish colonial tradition of retablo paintings, which traditionally depict devotional images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints. Rather than creating devotional images, Olguin maps the establishment of Spanish mission churches atop Indigenous territories and waterways. The practice of renaming Indigenous towns after Catholic saints underscores this Indigenous dispossession. Olguin’s Retablos reveal the entanglements of the Catholic church in what is now the southwestern United States while also presenting a restorative mapping practice.
From the 2024 exhibition [Un]Mapping: Decolonial Cartographies of Place, curated by Beatriz Yanes Martinez, Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow, Curatorial and Exhibitions
Course History
ANTH 11/NAS 11, Ancient Native Americans, Madeleine McLeester, Fall 2020
PORT 8, Brazilian Portraits, Carlos Cortez Minchillo, Winter 2021
LACS 22.11, Latinx Intergenerational Literature, Marcela di Blasi, Spring 2021
ANTH 18, Research Methods in Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2021
ANTH 55, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2021
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Winter 2022
Anthropology 73.01, Main Currents in Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Spring 2024
Exhibition History
[Un]Mapping: Decolonial Cartographies of Place, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 8 -November 3, 2024.
Form and Relation: Contemporary Native American Ceramics, Citrin Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 9-November 29, 2020.
Provenance
The artist, Ruben Olguin, Albuquerque, New Mexico; sold to present collection, 2020.
This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.
We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu