Marty Two Bulls Jr. is wrapping up his artist residency at the Sanford Underground Research Facility.
During a recent talk at the ethnobotanical garden near the old Homestake Mine, Two Bulls described his visual art approach at a lab dedicated to studying the invisible.
During the months of June and July, Two Bulls rubbed elbows with physicists who’re studying the mysteries of the universe deep underground in the Homestake gold mine turned into worldclass research facility.
The Oglala Lakota artist inquired about neutrinos—the smallest particle known in the universe that changes properties over distance, and dark matter—something that comprises 85 percent of mass in the universe but has not been directly seen yet.
During the third iteration of Deep Roots speaker series held at the ethnobotanical garden at SURF, Changleska Wakhan, Two Bulls says he asked visiting physicists how they visualized their field.
“Some people would have an image. Some of those folks, they couldn’t’ easily come up with an image," Two Bulls said. "So, the follow up question would be, ‘Well, if you were going to get a tattoo to represent dark matter, what would that look like?’ That opened up the conversation.”
Two Bulls is a full-time faculty member at Oglala Lakota College. He describes his art as concept driven that jumps formats—from 2D prints, motion graphics, to sculptures.
He said he’s drawing a lot right now and working with notes he took during the in-person portion of the residency that included going a mile underground in the old gold mine.
“And really still trying to figure out what concepts that I’m going to develop for this. I’m still very much in the drawing phase—whether that’ll be a sculpture or a 2D image or a 3D image—it’s still very much the drawing phase for me.”
Two Bulls’ residency will culminate into an exhibition in October in the Ruddell gallery at Black Hills State University in Spearfish.
