Tammie L. Dupuis
MFA ’22 Fine Arts Low-Residency
I am a person of mixed blood; my father was a member of the Bitterroot Salish and Q’lispe tribes and my maternal grandparents were literal white settlers, arriving in the early 1920s. Because of this dual heritage, my art is intercultural; its themes and processes are situated between my Indigenous and non-Indigenous heritages.
I am a multi-media artist; I work with mediums that are either non-Ingenious, Indigenous, or used by both cultures. These include but are not limited to paint, textiles, wood, bone, hair, resin, ink, and paper. Through these materials I explore concepts and themes that are situated in the in-between places in which these cultural experiences meet; I look for common spaces between to allow my viewers access in ways that make sense to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous viewers. Through my dual experiences, I learned both Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of seeing and making, and these elements are fused together in everything I create.
In my artwork, I investigate the themes of visibility/invisibility and recognizability/unrecognizability through my intercultural lens. I am interested in pushing against the invisibility of the Indigenous body in this country and the stereotypical assumptions of what Indigenous work should look like. I’m also interested in exploring and making visible the problematic history of Indigenous people in the US in a way that is accessible to both an Indigenous and non-Indigenous audience.
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Tammie L. Dupuis grew up on the Flathead Reservation, located in Northwestern Montana. Her father was Qlispe’a and Seli’š and her mother was non-Indigenous. Her aesthetic is situated between these two cultural heritages and explores their complicated history as well as her own identity as a mixed blood person. Using both Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of making and seeing, her work ranges across several different processes and materials. She and her art practice are located in Bremerton, WA.
