Anna Tsouhlarakis, Resident Artist Lecture 2025

Anna Tsouhlarakis gives a lecture at Skowhegan. Tsouhlarakis comments on the importance of not being defined or called as an interdisciplinary artist, and speaks candidly about the many mediums that she makes art in, including but not limited to: video, sculpture, drawing, collage, and performance. Tsouhlarakis goes into detail speaking about her experiences learning traditional and indigenous forms of art and how her dad – also an artist– inspired her when she was growing up. Tsouhlarakis in particular spoke about turning to performance which she loved activating, because it didn’t have to be stagnant and it could live on in a different way. Another important revelation for Tsouhlarakis was when she took a Federal Indian Law course at the Yale Law School, learning about treaty rights, historical agreements between the US and Tribes, and tribal sovereignty under the guidance of the federal government which was an important part of Tsouhlarakis’s development as an artist. For Tsouhlarakis, this idea of native art always having to teach someone something and always having to be serious and only deal with spirituality and myth was something she has always fought against. Tsouhlarakis speaks about how humour is very important in her work and it is a strain that has maintained throughout all of her practice. Tsouhlarakis then speaks about photography and how it can be used as a tool for documentation because it implies one doesn’t know everything that happened in a space, only providing a snippet. Exploring the landscape, such as New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona and thinking about how the landscape and Navajo creation stories deal with one’s understanding of multiple worlds is another topic Tsouhlarakis touches upon. Tsouhlarakis tells the participants how she never wanted to rely on her artwork to make money and that selling and the market is not the sole focus for her of being an artist. Instead, Tsouhlarakis makes what needed to be made, and what she felt needed to be made and not what anyone else felt needed to. Tsouhlarakis ends the lecture by addressing the following questions: What does decolonization look like and does she believe in it? What action would make the indigenization happen and how could Tsouhlarakis illustrate that through sculpture and artwork? Tsouhlarakis addresses these questions by saying she is not interested in deconstructing something, or ripping something apart but instead wants something to keep going or to evolve. Ultimately, Tsouhlarakis is not a solitary artist that works alone, but likes to be in community, and likes talking to people. This is why Tsouhlarakis teaches, because it helps her navigate a community and have a separate income outside of just the market.