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John Feodorov in "Spirituality"
Calling on his Native American heritage and sense of humor, John Feodorov sets tradition against modern-day kitsch to create a “hybrid mythology” in provocative multimedia installations. “I have this background,” says Feodorov, “of a traditional Navajo and this sort of outsider Christian background of Jehovah Witnesses, which are completely opposed to each other. And I’m in the middle trying to make sense out of it.”
Filmed in Seattle, Washington, where the artist works and lives, the segment features Office Shaman, a new performance/installation which humorously joins contemporary office culture with ritual healing and sacrifice.
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John Feodorov was born in 1960 in Los Angeles, California, and currently lives and works in Seattle, Washington. Feodorov received his BFA in drawing and painting from California State University and his MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College. Brought up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, he spent summers visiting his grandparents on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. As a child, Feodorov experienced the cultural contradictions between his dual heritages, being of mixed Navajo (Diné) and Euro-American descent. He also observed the stereotypes present in American culture, where Native Americans have been idealized as the living embodiment of spirituality by New Age consumerists. His work addresses this clichéd modern archetype through a humorous interjection of “sacred” items into recognizable consumer products.
Artwork Survey: 1990s
