POWER  (PANORAMAS) 2013-Present

Ventura Oil Derricks (Chumash)

02.12.18  20" x 164"

‘Atishwin - supernatural power

‘Ushk’a’lish - natural power

- Tsmuwich language dictionary (associated with Barbareño Chumash, one of the fourteen bands of the Chumash Nation)

“The three bodies of life - land, air and water - sustain us; we are dependent on them for our existence and survival.”

- Mati Waiya, ceremonial elder and founder of Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation

Land splits sea and sky off the coast of Shisholop, one of the traditional villages of the Chumash, meaning “muddy place.” The region is commonly called Ventura County.  Vertically, the neat boundary between upper and lower layers evokes ‘alapayashup (the World Above), ‘itiyashup (the Middle World), and C’oyinahsup (the World Below) that comprise the Chumash universe. ‘Alapayashup is home to the sky people. ‘Itiyashup is home to the “First People,” pre-human animal beings prior to the creation of the Chumash. C’oyinahsup is home to the nunashish, powerful and malevolent supernatural beings of the night.

Horizontally, the softer gradient from sun to shadow evokes the passages of power that are not so harshly confined inside Worlds. Rather, in Chumash cosmology, power moves between Worlds: animating, acting, and invigorating. In a 2020 interpretative planning leaflet published by Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, Susan Suntree writes:

Anywhere power

moves through the Above and Below

into the Middle World

and speaks to those

who have the knowledge-power

to understand is kas’ elew.

- Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California

‘Alchuklash, or Chumash astronomers, acquired power from the Upper World, divining knowledge and intention for the benefit of society below. In the words of Chumash linguist Matthew Vestuto, this is a place “where the acquired visions found actuation, the wind (spirit) carrying the vision off the surface of the womb-like cave into the world to manifest.”

Research conducted by Thuy Vi Vivian Ngyuen