Postcommodity

Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary arts collective comprising three artists—Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martinez, and Kade L. Twist—who represent diverse cultural traditions and perspectives of three of the First Nations cultures of the North American continent. Postcommodity’s practice is thus inherently international, and it operates from areas of intersection to speak with a shared Indigenous voice to examine the institutions, perceptions, beliefs, and actions that define national identities and trans-border relationships. 

The artists’ primary medium is discourse. Incorporating iconography, artistic forms, and beliefs from their respective cultural traditions, they create interactive multimedia installations that engage audiences in questions of environmental, economic, and political processes, not necessarily to reach a decisive conclusion but rather to generate productive discourse among a community of active participants. Through their artwork, Postcommodity seeks to connect Indigenous narratives of cultural self-determination with the broader public sphere. 

From elections to debates surrounding the United States’s policies on immigration, their work is particularly resonant, offering the opportunity to consider the multiple national perspectives rooted in the geopolitical territory of the United States. Postcommodity’s residency productively expands the perspectives from which the Museum represents contemporary art in an international context. 

Their historic installation, Repellent Fence, was installed at the US-Mexico border near Douglas, Arizona, and is the subject of an award-winning documentary, Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2017. Postcommodity are the recipients of numerous grants and awards for their multimedia practice. 

Postcommodity’s work was featured in the 2017 Venice Biennale and Documenta 14 in Athens. Additionally, they have been featured in national and international exhibitions, including Contour, the 5th Biennial of the Moving Image (Mechelen, Belgium); Nuit Blanche (Toronto, Canada); the 18th Sydney Biennial (Sydney, Australia); the Adelaide International (Adelaide, Australia); and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona; among others.