Always Becoming, Installation artwork at National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC, United States
Always Becoming features five outdoor sculptures made from natural materials positioned at different heights at the museum entrance. The works range from about 7 feet to over 16 feet tall and are composed of a mix of local and imported organic materials.
The Museum of the American Indian commissioned this work in 2006 after the artist Nora Naranjo-Morse won a design competition. The installation marked a shift in how the museum presented contemporary indigenous artistic expression at its entrance.
The five figures come from Santa Clara Pueblo oral traditions and represent family members alongside mythological beings. Many visitors read them as an expression of indigenous spiritual connections and ways of understanding the world.
Visitors can observe the sculptures throughout the year to see how the natural materials gradually change through exposure to weather and time. It helps to visit multiple times to truly experience this transformation.
The sculptures are deliberately built from perishable materials like straw, bamboo, grass, and vines that are not restored or maintained. This intentional decay is central to the artistic concept and reflects ideas about change and impermanence.
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