Our country sinks beneath the yoke

[Image 1 Text: I’VE COMPOSED A NEW AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM TAKE A KNEE AND SCREAM UNTILL YOU CAN’T BREATHE /end]

[Image 2 Text: If we sen you our land, you must remember, and teach your children. that the mers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth sive the rivers the kindness you would give to any brother.

The vtite man does not understand. One portion of land is the same to his ss se met lar he is a wanderer who comes in the night and borrows from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy and when he has won the struggle. he moves on. He leaves Is lathe's craves behind and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth tam is thiaten And he does not care. The father's graves and the childrents tirtright are forgotten by the white man, who treats his nother the eaith and his brother the sky as things to be bought. plackes, and sald. tike sheep, bread, or bright beads. In this way, tie dog al appelte will devour the rich earth and leave only a desert.

Chiel Seattle, 1971 /end]

[Image 3 Text: Neon American Anthem, 2023

Participatory performance, custom neon, welcome mats

Nicholas Galanin

Tlingit/Unangax, born 1979

Seattle Art Museum Commission

Artist's statement:

Neon American Anthem is a participatory installation designed to activate the American Art galleries at the Seattle Art Museum. The work offers visitors a place to kneel and follow the directive of a neon sign on the wall that reads, "I've composed a new American national anthem: take a knee and scream until you can't breathe." The work creates an intersectional space for catharsis; to mourn the loss of lives, freedoms, and safety for people and lands subjected to American violence, and to protest continuing oppression.