{{Short description|Diné (Navajo) textile artist}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Tyrrell Tapaha | honorific_suffix = | image = <!-- use the image's pagename; do not include the "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and do not use brackets--> | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = 2001 <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} for living artists, {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}} for dead. For living people supply only the year unless the exact date is already WIDELY published, as per WP:DOB. Treat such cases as if only the year is known, so use {{birth year and age|YYYY}} or a similar option. --> | birth_place = Goat Springs, Arizona<ref name="TV" /> | baptised = <!-- will not display if birth_date is entered --> | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} --> | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = Diné textile art and traditional weaving | notable_works = | style = hand spun wool pictorial weavings | movement = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | father = | mother = | relatives = | family = | awards = Brandford/Elliott Award from the American Textile Society | signature = | signature_type = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website = <!-- {{URL|Example.com}} --> | module = }}
'''Tyrrell Tapaha''' (born 2001)<ref name="TV" /> is a Diné textile artist who makes pictorial woven works. Tapaha is a sixth generation weaver who grew up on the Navajo Nation at Goat Springs, Arizona. In 2022 they received the Brandford/Elliott Award from the American Textile Society.
==Early life==
Tapaha grew up on the Navajo Nation<ref name="TV" /> in the Four Corners region of northeastern Arizona near T'iis Názbạs (Teec Nos Pos), where they learned traditional weaving from their family, helping to herd sheep and spin yarn.<ref name="PTM" /><ref name="cc">{{cite web |title=The Queue: Tyrrell Tapaha |url=https://www.craftcouncil.org/post/queue-tyrrell-tapaha |website=Craft Council |access-date=27 August 2023}}</ref> It was through their great-grandmother, Mary Kady Clah and other family members,<ref name="ACM" /> that Tapaha learned the art and craft of weaving. Tapaha has stated that they use "archaic tools to make contemporary stories.<ref name="Hyper" /><ref name="NT">{{cite news |last1=Krisst |first1=Rima |title='It's the future': Fiber artists dispel myths with blended wool-hemp weaving |access-date=21 July 2023 |publisher=Navajo Times |date=30 September 2021|url=https://navajotimes.com/ae/culture/its-the-future-fiber-artists-dispel-myths-with-blended-wool-hemp-weaving/}}</ref> Tapaha began weaving at the age of seven.<ref name="BS">{{cite news |last1=Slagle |first1=Dylan |title=From Sheep to Loom (Photo essay) |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/cctnews-vg-sheep-to-loom-071722-20220717-yt5tsa6nxzbrdldl6fhgqhnwt4-photogallery.html |access-date=21 July 2023 |publisher=The Baltimore Sun |date=17 July 2022}}</ref>
==Work==
Tapaha's work explores "the complexity of lived experience, imagined futures and the rich history of their community."<ref name="NAAM" /> Using a vertical, traditional Navajo-type loom with a batten and weaving comb,<ref name="ACM" /> they produce woven textiles and fiber art using hand spun vegetal matter dyed Navajo-Churro fleece, alpaca (Navajo-raised as well as New Zealand-raised), mohair, and merino wools in a style that combines contemporary with traditional imagery. Tapaha gathers desert plants from Arizona and Utah to make the dyes used in the weavings. They also use contemporary alternative fibrous materials, for example, recycled plastic yarn.<ref name="PTM" /> Tapaha has described the work as collage-like "visual abstraction" in which woven pieces are broken apart and then rewoven "back together in some type of amorphous figure."<ref name="ACM">{{cite journal |last1=Montaño |first1=Roshii |title=Dazzling Pictorials: Diné fiber artist and sheepherder Tyrrell Tapaha combines the traditional with the personal |journal=American Craft Magazine |issue=Summer 2023 |url=https://www.craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/dazzling-pictorials |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref> They have also developed, with Ira Vandever, a blended fiber from hemp combined with Churro wool, and often combines several types of fiber in a single work.<ref name="NT" /> In addition to the pictorial textiles he weaves, he is also a printmaker<ref name="Hyper" /> and creates felted objects that are both utilitarian and aesthetic.<ref name="BGCG">{{cite web |title=Shaped by the Loom Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest |url=https://exhibitions.bgc.bard.edu/shapedbytheloom/theme/homeland-creation-cosmology/loom-with-unfinished-weaving/ |website=Bard Graduate Center Gallery |access-date=23 July 2023}}</ref> One of Tapaha's passions are the Diné teachings and kinship system of K'e.<ref name="PTM" /> Tapaha has stated: {{blockquote|Every aspect of Diné weaving has teachings sowed from past generations that encourage learning generations to think critically about resource use, hard work, reverence, and persistence.<ref name="BGCG" />}}
Tapaha's work has been exhibited at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe,<ref name="NMDCA">{{cite web |title=Museum of Indian Arts & Culture presents "Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Diné Textiles" |url=https://media.newmexicoculture.org/release/1524/museum-of-indian-art |website=New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref> the Museum of Contemporary Arts Flagstaff,<ref name="TSA">{{cite web |title=Tyrrell Tapaha 2022 Brandford/Elliott Award for Excellence in Fiber Art Recipient |url=https://textilesocietyofamerica.org/programs/brandford-elliott-award/tyrrell-tapaha |website=Textile Society of America |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref> among other venues. Their work has been featured in the Baltimore Sun, the Navajo Times and Hyperalleric, Native American Art Magazine among other publications.<ref name="ACM" /><ref name="NAAM">{{cite journal |last1=Joyce |first1=Erin |title=Potent Forms:Tyrrell Tapaha uses creativity in weaving to explore new ideas, and reject old ones. |journal=Native American Art Magazine |issue=August September 2023 |url=https://www.nativeamericanartmagazine.com/issues/46/Potent%20Forms |access-date=23 July 2023}}</ref> They are one of four Diné artists<ref name="PTM">{{cite web |title=Diné Weavers: Past, Present and Future |url=https://www.textilex.org/event/dine-weavers-past-present-and-future/ |website=Portland Textile Month |access-date=23 July 2023}}</ref> featured in the film ''Weaving the Future'' directed by Shaun Price.<ref name="TSA" /> Nicholas Geib has made a short documentary film on Tapaha and their work.<ref name="FMFF">{{cite web |title=Tyrell Tapaha |url=https://flagstaffmountainfilms.org/films/tyrrell-tapaha/ |website=Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival |access-date=23 July 2023}}</ref>
The content of the work investigates and challenges colonialist frameworks regarding Navajo weaving, for example in the piece, ''Áshkii Gáamalii : The Boy Who Lives in Two Worlds,'' that includes the embroidered text, ''KKKolonization Killz'', as an affront towards and resistance to the "sustained violence that the settler state has forced upon Indigenous peoples, and not just in governmental policies". The work also sheds light on the inequities of the often-idealized trading post system, where Indigenous weavers were not paid a living wage for their work.<ref name="NAAM" />
In addition to their "from sheep-to-loom"<ref name="NAAM" /> artistic practice, Tapaha is a full-time sheep herder on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area.<ref name="BGCG" /><ref name="AH">{{cite journal |last1=Clahchischiligi |first1=Sunnie R. |title=According to Custom |journal=Arizona Highways |access-date=23 July 2023|url=https://www.arizonahighways.com/index.php/article/according-custom}}</ref> Tapaha describes this holistic approach as fueled by an interest in "the ecology, the hydrology and just the generalized land management that comes with [this] process.” They go on to state: {{blockquote|I think it’s powerful to know that the thing that not only sustains me financially, emotionally and spiritually is the thing that also sustains the land in the same way, it sustains the sheep in the same way, and that is really powerful.<ref name="NAAM" />}}
In 2024, Tapaha had a solo show at The Valley gallery in Taos, New Mexico. The exhibition included weavings, sculpture and photographs made at the Tapaha family' sheep camp.<ref name="TV">{{cite web |title=Tyrrell Tapaha: Just a Sheepherder |url=https://www.thevalleytaos.com/tyrrell-tapaha-just-a-sheepherder |website=The Valley |access-date=11 April 2025}}</ref> In 2025, Tapaha's work was shown at the Zimmerli Museum.<ref name="NHO-1">{{cite news |last1=Wittenberg |first1=Alexandra |title=Woven vulgarity: Tyrrell Tapaha juxtaposes tradition with ultra modern |url=https://www.nhonews.com/features/woven-vulgarity-tyrrell-tapaha-juxtaposes-tradition-with-ultra-modern/article_729b183a-eb13-11ef-8b31-2b1f448c7555.html |access-date=28 February 2025 |publisher=Navajo Hopi Observer |date=25 February 2025}}</ref>
==Awards and collections== In 2022 they received the Brandford/Elliott Award from the American Textile Society.<ref name="Hyper">{{cite web |last1=Joyce |first1=Erin |title=Tyrrell Tapaha's Fresh Approach to Pictorial Navajo Textiles |url=https://hyperallergic.com/779783/tyrrell-tapaha-fresh-approach-pictorial-navajo-textiles/ |website=Hyperallergic |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="TSA"/>
Tapaha's work is included in the Tia Collection<ref name="SFR">{{cite news |last1=De Vore |first1=Alex |title=Where the Sky Meets the Land |url=https://www.sfreporter.com/news/coverstories/2023/07/19/where-the-sky-meets-the-land/ |access-date=21 July 2023 |publisher=Santa Fe Reporter |date=19 July 2023}}</ref> the collection of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture,<ref name="MIAC-">{{cite web |title=Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Diné Textiles showcases more than 30 textiles and related items from the extensive collection at MIAC |url=https://www.indianartsandculture.org/current?&eventID=5406 |website=Museum of Indian arts and Culture |access-date=16 August 2024}}</ref> and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.<ref name="TV" />
== Personal life == Tapaha is queer<ref name="TV" /> and uses he/they pronouns.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Caitlin Lorraine |date=2024-07-02 |title=Tyrrell Tapaha: Weaving Earth and Sky |url=https://dovetailmag.com/2024/07/tyrrell-tapaha/ |access-date=2026-04-15 |website=Dovetail |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-11-21 |title=Tyrrell Tapaha’s Fresh Approach to Pictorial Navajo Textiles |url=https://hyperallergic.com/tyrrell-tapaha-fresh-approach-pictorial-navajo-textiles/ |access-date=2026-04-15 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en}}</ref>
==See also== • Eric-Paul Riege
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Biggers, Ashley M. '[https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/new-generation-of-dine-weavers-on-navajo-nation/ ''Meet the Next Generation of Diné Weavers''], New Mexico Magazine, July 2021
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tapaha, Terrell}} Category:Living people Category:2001 births Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people Category:21st-century American textile artists Category:21st-century American artists Category:American queer artists Category:Native American LGBTQ people Category:Native American people from Arizona Category:Navajo artists Category:Navajo weavers Category:People from Apache County, Arizona Category:Textile artists from Arizona Category:Weavers from Arizona