The Protector

2015 - 2017

Ink on fabric (windbox)

Dimensions: 102 x 51 inches

LED firebox with transmounted lightjet Duratrans

Dimensions: 96 x 48 inches

“Dana Claxton’s work appropriates the language of mass media to foreground discrimination and violence against First Nations. Her recent solo exhibition at the Audain Gallery, Made To Be Ready (2016), focused especially on Indigenous women, whose bold, defiant postures and vibrant traditional regalia drew from the aesthetics of high fashion. Her spectacular light box The Protector, from the series Love Liberation Front, adopts the same strategy while also enacting a blatant protest. Taken from Redbone’s 1970’s hit “Come and Get Your Love,” Claxton’s message echoes the countercultural ethos of “Make Love, Not War.” The Protector reverses the Western commoditisation of First Nations objects. In their cultural contexts, these are not inert artefacts but tools with specialised uses and meanings. Here, the model’s charcoal-grey couture grades into the shadowed background, highlighting her band and necklace. Her pose takes cues from fashion editorials, though her stance is firm: she is not a vehicle for the sign she holds, nor for the finery she wears. Fiercely energetic, Claxton’s photograph presents a challenge to look, think, and act. “

– From the Polygon First Night Catalogue