June Carpenter (Shawnee/Osage)

Title: Of the Air

Work Description: The three rawhide panels layered and photographed here were later assembled atop a drum for a project sponsored by the Osage Nation Foundation. Inspired by the drum and Osage culture, paper-cutting techniques were used on semi-transparent rawhide panels to create images of cedar, lungs, cicadas, and feathers.

The cicadas on all of the panels represent the drum and singing, in addition to the location and the season of the In-lon-schka, Osage ceremonial dances. Cicadas possess tymbals, small but complex structures, which produce a loud and characteristic sound. The cicada’s body acts as a resonance chamber to these vibrating structures composed of stiff ribs and flexible membranes. The ribbonwork and fingerweaving patterns on the bodies of the cicadas are similar to those patterns adorning the dancers’ clothing. The positioning of feathers on one panel evokes the movement of the dancers’ eagle feathers rising out of their roaches. Cedar is a spiritually important element to Osages, which is often burned in ceremonial practices. The lung-shape represents breath, a life-sustaining force that generates and takes in meaning. The Osages have breathed life into the drum, the songs, and the dancing of the In-lon-schka in a way that breathes life back into the people.

Bio: June Carpenter is a multimedia artist who was born and raised in Tulsa. Her Osage name is
Mon-ci-tse-xi and she is a member of the Tsi-zho Wa-shta-keh clan. Using intricate images and
text, she explores connections with nature and the redressing of systemic injustices. Carpenter
is a self-taught artist whose most recent work consists of paper cutting, embroidery, and beadwork. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Tulane University, and a Juris Doctorate and Master of Arts in Museum Studies from the University of Oklahoma. In Philadelphia, she worked in historic house museums, and in New York, she worked at the National Museum of the American Indian. Having returned to her hometown, Carpenter now works as the Chief Registrar at the Philbrook Museum of Art.

Instagram: @june.camille

Work Location: 145 E. 1st Street Tulsa, OK 74103