Artist Interview: Angela Two Stars

photo by Eric Papenfuss

Angela Two Stars is a public artist, enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and the Director of All My Relations Arts. Her latest public art piece, Okciyapi, was installed at the Walker Art Center in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in October 2021.

“Okciyapi” (which translates to “Help Each Other”) is the advice Angela Two Stars’ late grandfather, Orsen Bernard, offered to Dakota language learners. That message of language revitalization, and of healing, resonates throughout much of Angela’s work.

Okciyapi is an immersive and participatory artwork, inviting visitors to move through it with all of their senses. Angela designed concrete seating areas that form concentric circles around a central water vessel. She says “I thought about the legacy that my grandfather left behind when he passed, like how one drop of water can ripple across an entire pond, one speaker’s knowledge can ripple across generations of speakers.” Visitors to the sculpture will also find plants native to Minnesota growing around the perimeter of the piece, opportunities to listen to audio recordings of Dakota language speakers, and to read Dakota words and phrases on panels affixed to the benches.

Angela worked on the enamel panels for Okciyapi at CAFAC, having learned the enameling process from CAFAC Artistic Director Heather Doyle for another public art piece called Under the Surface; We are all the Same.

While she was finishing Okciyapi, we spoke with her about her most recent work and here is what she shared.

“I wanted people to be able to sit and both see and hear the Dakota language when they enter into this piece. When you go to the artwork label, you can scan a QR code and hear a number of fluent Dakota speakers who I recorded telling stories in Dakota. Dakota is an oral language and so it was important to me that people could hear how it sounds.”

“My grandmother, whose husband was the inspiration behind the work, told a childhood story of growing up in South Dakota, another elder had shared a story about the creation of the language, a few other elders talked about some childhood memories, so it’s a variety. They were sharing a gift with me by giving me a story that could be incorporated into this piece, so it was of their choosing, what they wanted to share in that moment.”

“And there are also the written language panels on the benches, which are the enamel pieces I’m working on here at CAFAC. They incorporate some Dakota values and also encouragement phrases. There is trauma connected to our language because of boarding schools, and it can be difficult trying to acquire the language skills because of all of that history. And so, for me, these are some of the encouragements you might want to hear to keep you going, to keep you motivated.”

“Through the design process for Okciyapi, I was working here at CAFAC on another project where I learned enameling and I just really took to it. So when I was proposing how we could incorporate these written language components on the benches, I recommended that we do enamel because I had learned it, I excelled at it, it would perform everything that we were needing, and it was something that I personally could do so I was really having my hand in the work.”

“It was my first time working with enamel on my project called “Under the Surface; We are all the Same” and I was looking for a material that would be durable all-seasons outdoors, when exposed to the sun it wouldn’t fade and also be anti-grafitti, and so Heather [Doyle] suggested enamel. That was my first time doing it, and I think, for me, why I was able to really embrace it, is that I’m not a painter, so I don’t use the material with the same expectations that a painter would; I’m respecting the material and how it performs rather than expecting it to perform like paint would. Even though it looks like paint, it’s not the same. I think that might be a big reason why I’ve been able to learn it and just excel at it. I’m really loose about my designs and act subconsciously about how I’m creating the forms, it’s an organic process for me.”

“My first public art project was the Bde Maka Ska project. It was right after I’d graduated and I was eased right in to professional work. I was fortunate to be teamed up with Mona Smith and Sandy Spieler, who actually did her decorative rails for that project here at CAFAC. That piece was really special because it was honoring Mahpiya Wicasta, my great- great- great-grandfather. So for me it was an opportunity to learn more about my ancestors, and where they had come from. It was really a kind of coming home to Minnesota, because growing up I lived on the reservation in South Dakota, and when I moved here I was like “this is where we’re from!” It’s been a reconnecting with the land and place, and a real sense of belonging, so that project was really great to be a part of.

“It’s funny because a lot of my work is based on Dakota language and raising awareness for revitalization efforts, but a lot of the other work that I do is just being an artist. So when I work on this [enamel piece] I’m painting, but not really; I don’t act or think the way a painter does. For the City of Minneapolis Public Works piece I used watercolor but I don’t consider myself to be a watercolor artist; it was what the work was needing to be. When I first started incorporating language into my work, I had to overcome my intimidation about printmaking, because that was what the work demanded. So that’s kind of the artist I am; I will learn and work with the kind of materials the art is demanding.”

“I just really enjoy working in public art, there are so many different ways an artist can exist and thrive, but for me what I’ve found about public art that I enjoy so much is that it is something that is there for everybody. You don’t have to have an admission ticket to go inside a museum, or to go into a gallery where you might feel intimidated being in that space, it’s almost like hidden surprises. I took my kids on a public art tour, and was like “Look! That’s public art! And that’s public art!” and to be a part of that is really special.”