Ericka Walker | Selections from The Heritage Collection, 1775-1965

Selections from The Heritage Collection, 1775-1965,  is a series of large-scale relief prints exploring shared violent legacies, including the histories of the colonial (settler), the colonized, and the forcibly displaced. Each work features a man-made explosion since the War of The American Revolution. The national mythologies of both the United States and Canada bind Walker and her children to all manner of violent birthright, and in The Heritage Collection, these are translated in terms of infrastructure demolitions, bomb tests, artillery strikes, and chemical weapons deployments, sampled from the beginnings of nationhood to the present day.

Interspersed throughout the exhibition are text panels, selections taken from author and American Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce’s seminal literary text, Chickamauga, recreated using smoke and stencils. Together, text and image explore how big, often romanticized, historical moments – including war and heroism – influence our shared present. Further, she imagines how the ways of presenting these moments in art can generate meaning for future generations, including, most personally, as a legacy for her children.