17 Mile Road
Cara Romero, Chemehuevi / American, born 1977
Chemehuevi
Great Basin
2019
Archival pigment print
5/10
Image: 30 1/16 × 30 1/16 in. (76.4 × 76.4 cm)
Sheet: 35 1/16 × 35 3/16 in. (89.1 × 89.3 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased with a gift from the Douglas Wise ’59 Memorial Arts Fund
2020.38.2
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Native American
Native American: Great Basin
On view
Inscriptions
Signed, lower right, in black ink: Cara Romero; numbered, lower left, in black ink: 5/10; inscribed, lower center, in black ink: "17 MILE ROAD"
Label
This mysterious and majestic scene displays four children crossing a road in the desert, reminiscent of the famous Abbey Road album cover by the Beatles. However, the wide angle of the scene, focusing on the sky and mountains as much as the figures, reinterprets the interconnected relationships between humans and their environment as integral rather than separate.
The boys, representing time-traveling figures of Chemehuevi oral traditions, disrupt the idea that the American Southwest is only empty deserts and Hollywoodesque cowboys. Instead, they reassert the deep connections to land felt by peoples native to the area, often forgotten in the American mainstream. For many Indigenous peoples, place-based connections to the land and our ancestors are crucial to identity and self-determination.
From the 2024 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 121, Across Oceans: Indigenous Solidarity in the Pacific and Beyond, curated by Kaitlyn Anderson '24, Conroy Intern
Course History
NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 121, Across Oceans: Indigenous Solidarity Throughout Pasifika and Beyond, Kaitlyn Anderson '24, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 2 – December 21, 2024.
Provenance
The artist, Cara Romero Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to present collection, 2020.
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