Reviewed by Hu Yue

MARK is a portfolio of Native American (Iñupiaq and Athabascan) artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs' lifelong artistic journey, tracing her practice through a variety of mediums from 1998 to 2024. Edited by Julie Decker, the book begins with texts - an introduction, critical reviews and an interview, providing context and intimate critiques of Kelliher-Combs’ inspirations and creative practice. The core of this publication is a rich photographic documentation of her main body of artworks - drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations with captions, descriptions, and three poems by Taqralik Partridge.

The beginning essays play the role of an informative prelude that generates expectations of artworks. Kelliher-Combs' practice and work are deeply anchored in her upbringing in Nome, Alaska, and her Iñupiaq heritage, which allows frequent and unique engagement with animals, lands, and the local community. Instead of getting inspiration from daily life, her artwork is her daily life- familial traditions, regional practices, and an intrinsic connection to the land and sea (Kelliher-Combs et al., 2024). The Indigenous culture, which she and the community have struggled with, juxtaposes with family traditions and rituals to form a vital knowledge resource, nurturing both her physical existence and artistic practice.

The cultural background and living environment give Kelliher-Combs exclusive access to complex materials and lavish contents that thread over the portfolio. This weaves a strong visual narrative that takes time to digest as different layers reveal themselves simultaneously. Following this, the question of artwork curation and categorisation also emerges.

The reindeer and sheep rawhide, clothing, plastic beads, and human hair interweave the tension between ancestral traditions and contemporary practicality. Materials that come from animals evoke the intimate connection between humans and animals which is inherently rooted in local survival routines. This intimacy speaks to both physical warmth from body temperature and spiritual kinship with regional subsistence practices. The tactile materials convey sensory experiences, allowing audiences to "feel" the narratives beyond verbal and visual perception. The interplay of materiality - from organic walrus gut to synthetic industrial polymer - oscillates between human and non-human agency and distance and intimacy with feminine fluidity. Her assertion that “we are part of the environment” (Abatemarco, 2016) emphasises interconnectedness, central to Kelliher-Combs’ Indigenous worldview, where culture and land continually shape one another. Interestingly, about 6,000 kilometres away from Alaska, her perspective echoes the ‘unity of heaven (or nature) and humanity’ which is the key to Chinese Taoism and Confucianism. This kindles further reflection about the “real and pristine nature” (Hunt, 2000). How do environments shape us, and how does the North’s nature differ from perceptions from the global South?

The abundant materiality contributes to variousness of artworks and complexity, among them, the recurring motif of the cocoon shape represents generational continuity and shared heritage. This motif serves as both a thread and a unifying element in her oeuvre. Inspired by the walrus tusk trim design traditionally found on Iñupiaq parka collars, these semi-open, hollow ovals symbolise protection, resilience, and empowerment to the wearers (Kelliher-Combs et al., 2024). The semi-transparent and skin-like cocoons, simultaneously vulnerable yet protective, become vessels of personal and cultural histories. By adding a layer of ambiguous complexity, it invites viewers to explore what remains concealed or revealed within the surfaces.

The concept of “secrets” weaves metaphorically and literally through Kelliher-Combs' work, linking together Indigenous identity, cultural continuity, natural environment, and local community. “By definition, a secret is something hidden, unspoken, repressed, and kept unknown” (Kelliher-Combs et al., 2024, p.160). In the series of Guarded Secrets, both concealment and perseverance are disclosed through the translucent cocoons which are protected by sharp porcupine quills. The sharpness and stabbing can be perceived even without seeing the actual objects. The repressed North Alaska Native identities and histories shaped by cultural assimilation, demographic changes and climate challenges can be discerned. Different shapes made of painted fabric (i.e., Walrus Family Portrait), animal skins (i.e., Common Thread), clothes maps (i.e., Credible Small Secrets), US national flags (i.e., Red, White, and Blue Idiot Strings), and the decoration of beads, hairs, and nylon features the layered complexities of Indigenous identity within colonisation and nationalism. As a mysterious narrative, the ‘secrets’ speak for themselves with a vulnerable but resilient murmur and a gentle clamour, inviting curiosities of what has been protected versus what surfaces into visibility.

At the end of this visual narrative, the Idiot Strings- cords traditionally used to connect two mittens- introduce another layer of connectivity and tension. Mittens refer to invisible hands, highlighting what is being held. The installation views of Gold Idiot Strings show a sense of order out of chaos. The physical bonds and intricate entanglements evoke complex relational dynamics. The waving hands (mittens) of the Goodbye installation suggest a dual gesture of farewell and greeting, opening and the perpetual flux of belonging. The intertwined strings with mittens embody both attachment and restriction, symbolising heritage carried across Natives and histories shaped by unseen hands. Whose hands are in the mittens- newcomers or the Natives?

The curating of these multidisciplinary works is well-received and inspiring, while the categorisation could be reconsidered. From the overall installation views, her work is characterised by repetition (Kelliher-Combs et al., 2024), exploring an idea through layouts in rows or groups. More than aesthetic appreciation, it brings persistence, continuity, and collective memory through individual uniqueness. The genuine balance between Kelliher-Combs’ artwork and her curatorial practice endows the “second life” of the works. By curating complexities into delicate serialisations, her insights into space interaction create immersive environments that embrace the audience to her own culture. However, while the rich materiality is a bold strength, the categorisation brings the discussion- whether conventional categorisation frameworks can accommodate Indigenous, practice-based, and multi-medium works into appropriate niches. Or where can the indigenous art settle in the contemporary or conventional art connoisseurship. For instance, in the “Painting” section, there are drawings, handcrafts, sculptures, and installations, likewise in “Drawing”, “Sculpture”, and “Installation”. While the overlaps between materials and sequences break through the limit of existing paradigms excitingly, she holds herself back by putting them back into the traditional categories. Instead, the artworks could be categorised conceptually or subjectively. For example, Virginia Overton’s installation titled ‘Paintings’ deliberately uses this term to refer to assembled industrial materials into new compositions that occupy the space and form of canvas (White Cube Gallery, 2025). Overton integrates the concept of ‘painting’ into her practice with sculpture as its foundational basis.

To summarise, MARK is a compelling collection that knits together on-site knowledge with an indigenous theme and an abundance of materials, which takes time to accumulate emotional and cognitive momentum. By knitting sea hunting, food gathering, and animal processing with cultural and environmental concerns, she leaves an indelible “MARK” on the contemporary art and natural landscape with cultural heritage and physical salute to the land. Her exploration of human and more-than-human materials composes the narrative that ignites the curiosity about Iñupiaq and Athabascan culture and the landscape further North. She challenges viewers with the complexities of identity, loss, and resilience and encourages people to consider the layers beneath materials and symbolism. Therefore, Kelliher-Combs’ art practice stands as both an invitation and a challenge—to witness, to remember, and to reconnect.

References

Abatemarco, M. (2016) Sonya Kelliher-Combs: Something left behind, PASATIEMPO. Available at: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/art/sonya-kelliher-combs-something-left-behind/article_5d6a32d0-7cdf-5f48-a820-1e68e9ccfa25.html  (Accessed: 03 March 2025)

Hunt, J.D. (2000) Greater perfections: The practice of garden theory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press

Kelliher-Combs, S. and Decker, J. (2024) Mark: Sonya Kelliher-Combs. Munich, Anchorage, AK: Hirmer Verlag ; Anchorage Museum.

Virginia Overton, Mason’s Yard (2025) White Cube. Available at: https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/virginia-overton-masons-yard-2025 (Accessed: 03 March 2025).