By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Tyler Dallis explores Native American imagery as well as connections with family and the loss of those connections in their MFA exhibit "Bloodlines."
The exhibit is on display now through May 11 at the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art on the Fort Hays State University campus.
Dallis' focus is ceramics and photography, although they have created mixed-media sculptures as well.
"Basically, my show is about my family," they said, "about my adoptive family, my biological family and my found family. I decided to call it 'Bloodlines' because of all of these types of experiences I have had with these people in my life. It's almost like a big family tree."
Dallis grew up on a Cherokee Nation reservation in Oklahoma. Indigenous artwork is a big part of their work.
"[I am] trying to take these traditional techniques and trying to build them into contemporary artwork," they said.
"I would like to think when I'm building the pieces, I am actively thinking about the person I'm making it about and braiding these memories into the clay—pushing and pulling—and then when I fire them, it solidifies them into actual reality. It will be less likely to be forgotten."
Dallis has multiple pieces in the exhibit that are ceramic mixed-media bridges, which are symbolic of the connections between people.
"Osiyo," which means hello in Cherokee, is a life-size human figure in native dress. Dallis modeled the figure after himself.
"It is a representation of my spirit," they said, "almost as a spirit guide, guiding me through my life."
The figure is holding a bridge. Dallis made the rungs of that bridge by pressing clay in their hands. The gold rungs symbolize positive events in their life, and the blue rings are negative trauma. There is a continuation of the bridge, which is symbolic of Dallis' future.
"In Bloom" is a wall of photos of Dallis' friends, who Dallis calls their found family.
Psychology research indicates when you receive flowers, your brain releases oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine—all feel-good chemicals.
"I was comparing these people to flowers because, to me, picking a friend is just as hard as finding the perfect flower in the field and calling it your own," they said.
Dallis also created a series of self-portrait photographs called "5,000 Cuts." The series is about an unhealthy relationship. The words of the song by the same name, "Death by a Thousand Cuts," is written on the photographs.
"Broken Memories" is a collection of ceramic plates. The plates are brightly decorated in red paint with the faceless outlines of people depicted on them. All of the plates are broken.
When Dallis was an undergraduate, their father committed suicide. When this happened, they said they felt they lost their adopted family. Their expression of their identity and sexuality widened that fissure with their adoptive family, they said.
"I haven't talked to my family in seven years," they said. "They are all aging and growing, and I'm forgetting what they look like. This is me trying to connect with these people again."
"Escape" is a simple piece. It is a hangman's noose and a toppled stool that Dallis has used to represent their father's suicide. Both items are painted bright red.
"I wanted to talk about the absent other," they said, "and that there are implied things that happen in life. You can see an act happened here even though there is no hint of a figure."
They said red is the most powerful color. It can represent many things, including hunger, love and anger.
"It gives me a feeling of red flags of what to look for in someone who might have suicidal tendencies," they said.
Dallis will graduate with their master's of fine arts in May and hopes to teach art at the college level.