A Global Destination for Art: Mercedes Dorame and River Garza

The Map and the Territory includes two site-specific installations by Tongva artists Mercedes Dorame and River Garza. Featuring objects excavated in Southern California, along with archival materials from the Fowler Museum’s archaeological collection, the installations prompt viewers to examine the processes by which institutions like the Fowler acquire, catalog, store, and study objects from Indigenous communities. The installations give new meanings to these objects, creating new spaces of intersection and understanding.

Join the artists, the Fowler’s Chief Curator Matthew H. Robb, and Senior Curator of Archaeology Wendy Teeter for a conversation about these installations; the artists’ current projects; the systems that have brought such objects to the Fowler; and the ongoing dialogues between tribal communities and museums.