Exhibition: Elisa Harkins, Teach Me A Song

The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum and Flagler College present “Teach Me a Song,” an ongoing body of video, sculpture, and photography work from Tulsa-based artist Elisa Harkins.

In 2019, Harkins (Cherokee/Muscogee) began her project “Teach Me a Song” which draws on her long-time interest in translation and language preservation. This exhibition is an extension of Harkins’ larger body of work in which she uses Cherokee and Mvskoke languages, electronic music, sculpture, and the body as her tools. She is the first person to use Cherokee in a contemporary song.

At the heart of the exhibition is a video that threads together a series of nine inter-tribal song exchanges, traversing musical genres. Harkins introduces viewers to ceremonial, religious, country, rock & roll, and electronic songs that are imparted with both personal and cultural significance.

“Teach Me a Song” is organized in collaboration with The New Gallery at Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, Tenn.) where the exhibition will be on view from Oct. 30 through Dec. 8, 2023, and the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art, College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.) where the exhibition will run in Spring 2024.

Harkins, who resides on the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, incorporates Indigenous language into each of her endeavors. She does this as an act of reclamation, a step towards decolonizing Indigenous musical traditions, and an attempt to alter the fate of these endangered languages. This mission is through active use, preservation on pressed vinyl, and radio play.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, Chicago and a Master of Fine Art from the California Institute of the Arts. She has since continued her education at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Harkins has exhibited her work at Crystal Bridges, Documenta 14, The Hammer Museum, The Heard Museum, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.