Hél čhaŋkú kiŋ ȟpáye (There lies the road), an installation and performance by Oglála Lakȟóta artist Suzanne Kite, represents the culmination of the artist’s year-long research project Wówasukiye waŋží ahóuŋpȟapi kte (There is a rule that we must observe). Produced at the invitation of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics as part of its 2020–2022 As for Protocols focus theme, the project considers the ethical creation of artwork using Artificial Intelligences through the development of protocols based on Lakȟóta ontologies.

For this site-specific installation, Kite and a team of collaborators  have developed a body interface for movement performances, carbon fiber and stone sculptures, immersive audio-visual installation, and graphics. Together the works on view reconsider our current and future relationships to nonhumans, especially to technology and artificial intelligence, and attempt to establish a sense of relationality between gallery visitors and the computer as a nonhuman entity.

 In Lakȟóta ontologies, materials such as metals, rocks, and minerals are capable of both volition and kinship with human beings. From this perspective, Kite creates new spaces for encounters with artificial intelligence, forming innovative methodologies for approaching human and nonhuman relations in a Good Way (an ethical way). This approach calls for a rethinking of the ontological status of each element that composes and creates artificial intelligence, from the earth’s resources mined for technology to the artworks that eventually use them. By bringing Indigenous epistemologies to bear on questions of AI, Kite’s work as a scholar and an artist develops conceptual frameworks and protocols by which we can conceive of relationships with nonhuman computational technology and AI, and make room for them in our collective future.

The exhibition is accompanied by a newly commissioned essay by Riel Bellow on the VLC’s online publishing platform and a sound work by Kite, which is also included in the exhibition. Additionally, documentation of a May 2021 conversation between Kite and artistic and research collaborators Scott Benesiinaabandan (Anishinaabe), Clementine Bordeaux (Sičáŋǧu Oglála Lakȟóta), and Jason Edward Lewis (Hawaiian and Samoan) is also online. Entitled Hél čhaŋkú kiŋ ȟpáye (There lies the road) – A Dialogue About Making Art in a Good Way, it was presented by the VLC as part of this year-long project. 

The exhibition is presented in partnership with PS122 Gallery and is open Monday through Sunday, 12–6 pm EST. All visitors must wear masks while in the gallery and show proof of vaccination. Registration is required to attend the performance at 7 pm EST, December 4, 2021.