Nicole
Neidhardt
multi-disciplinary
“The wor(l)ds contained in Nicole's MFA thesis document and accompanying MFA exhibition, Stories Held in a Time Traveller’s Hogan, offer glimmers into Diné Time, Diné Aesthetics, Indigenous Futurisms, and Sa’ąh Naagháí Bik’eh Hózhǫ́ǫ́n. These Diné Knowledges reach across time and space to Diné Ancestors, to Diné Time Travellers, to the Land, and to family. These connections are held within constellations of temporality and relationality that are created by stories. Throughout this re-search journey, I began to wonder, how do we activate the Land as Time Machine? What happens when portals, or spaces of fluid time energy on the Land, start making their own stories? Diné Time Travellers open up a space for these questions. They are masterful weavers of time, story, and Diné Aesthetics. Their weavings illuminate pathways for dreaming expansively outside of colonial realities. For this thesis project, the Diné Time Travellers wanted to visit the Sacred Mountains to spend time with their stories (weavings) that reside in the Land there. This document and exhibition are alive with those stories. ”
Nicole Neidhardt is Diné (Navajo) of Kiiyaa'áanii Clan on her mother’s side, a blend of European ancestry on her father’s side and is from Santa Fe, NM. She has a BFA from the University of Victoria and has just completed her MFA at OCAD University in the Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design Program. Nicole’s Diné identity is the heart of her practice which encompasses mirror mylar installations, Land-based practices, illustration, painting, and murals. Her research is grounded in Diné storytelling, Diné Aesthetics, Time Travel, and Indigenous Futurisms. She is the co-founder of the Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium, the Groundswell Climate Collective, and has recently released a children’s book she illustrated written by Monique Gray Smith titled, When We Are Kind.
OCAD U - Graduate Studies
Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media and Design (MA, MDes and MFA)
Major Completed, 2021
University of Victoria
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts
Major Completed, 2015
Indigenous Futurisms Diné Storytelling Installation Diné Aesthetics Land-Based Practices Mirror Mylar Stencilling