Carmen Selam plays with pinks, printmaking and Polly Pockets

By ADDISON KEY @AddisonKey11

Utilizing a variety of mediums and the color pink, Carmen Selam uses pop-culture references and specific colors to amplify themes of Indigeneity and Queerness in her artwork.

Currently, she is experimenting with risograph printmaking to create a zine titled “Resbians,” a combination of the words “lesbians” and “reservation.” Selam is Yakama and Comanche, and said she finds herself incorporating those two identities throughout her artwork. She calls herself “Yakamanche” – a combination of the two.

Selam started calling herself an artist when she moved to Santa Fe in 2011 to attend the Institute of American Indian Arts. Many people describe her work as pop art, Selam said. Santa Fe introduced Selam to the contemporary art market and she began to contextualize her work in the Native art canon.

“I think my art is traditional in the sense that I’m very rooted in where I’m from, so on my reservation. But it’s also contemporary in the sense that I’m a Native person existing now,” Selam said.

Tackling gender and identity, Selam finished her Master of Fine Arts show titled “Switch Dance” at the IAIA. The term “switch dance” refers to a practice in powwows where you wear regalia of the opposite gender, Selam said. Selam used to switch dance with her brother.

“It was a lot about grief protocols and my relationship with my late brother … That was really about honoring that relationship, honoring that space and redefining what it means in a contemporary society as a Yakama Comanche woman,” Selam said.

The MFA show was emotionally charged, and for the rest of the summer, Selam said she is focused on having fun. She was chosen as the artist-in-residence at Risolana – a community risograph studio and nonprofit.

Through the program, artists are able to pick one ink color to add to Risolana’s collection. Selam picked a mauve-pink – a color that represents a ‘90s kid’s nostalgia and was present in many of her past paintings, Selam said.

“Inside of (one of my) painting(s) is imagery of a Polly Pocket, but it represents things on a reservation within it. The background for that painting was a light mauve-pink. As soon as I saw that color as an option, I was like, ‘This is the one, this is the color,’” Selam said.