Apsáalooke Women & Warriors

Temporary Exhibition | Field Museum

My Role

• Creative Direction

• Experience Design

• Video Production

• Cross-disciplinary Collaboration

Overview

For Apsáalooke Women & Warriors, I served as Creative Director for the exhibition’s photography and video experiences, shaping the visual direction and art direction to create a meaningful emotional connection between visitors and the stories being told.

The Challenge

The exhibition centers Apsáalooke women and warriors, creating an opportunity for media to do more than provide information. The films needed to support the exhibition’s storytelling while creating an emotional entry point for visitors—inviting them to connect with the people, perspectives, and stories represented in the exhibition.

Creative Direction

I led the creative direction for the film experiences, establishing a visual approach that supported the character and tone of each story while maintaining cohesion within the larger exhibition.

My focus was on developing the visual style and art direction of the films, considering how composition, imagery, pacing, and visual language could strengthen the narratives rather than compete with them. I worked to ensure that the media felt intentional within the exhibition environment and that the creative choices served the stories at the center of the experience.

Beadwork Video Installation

For Apsáalooke Women and Warriors, I produced and edited a video featuring Elias Jade Not Afraid demonstrating traditional Apsáalooke beadwork techniques. The goal was to create a film that went beyond documenting the process, using moving image to highlight the artistry, skill, and cultural significance of beadwork within Apsáalooke traditions.

Bringing Craft to Life

I shaped the video to give visitors an intimate view of the beadwork process, focusing on the details of the craft and the hands-on nature of the work. The film allowed visitors to observe the technique and artistry of beadwork in a way that complemented the physical objects throughout the exhibition.

Connecting Film and Object

The video was presented as a large-scale projection within the gallery, directly paired with the actual beadwork featured in the film. Positioned beneath the projection, the physical object provided a tactile counterpart to the moving image, allowing visitors to see the craft being created and then encounter the finished work as a tangible object.

This integration of moving image and material culture created a multisensory experience that connected storytelling, craftsmanship, and touch. Rather than presenting the film and artifact as separate interpretive elements, the installation allowed each to deepen the visitor's understanding of the other—creating a more immediate connection to the living tradition represented in the exhibition.

My Role: Creative Direction · Video Production · Editing · Visual Storytelling · Media Integration

Apsáalooke Women and Warriors: Fashion Video

For Apsáalooke Women and Warriors, I edited a large-scale fashion video designed as an immersive visual installation celebrating the strength, beauty, and creativity of Apsáalooke women.

Creative Direction

The visual approach brought together fashion, identity, tradition, and contemporary Indigenous expression. Set to music by Apsáalooke hip-hop artist Supaman, the piece used the energy and rhythm of the music as a foundation for the edit.

I shaped the pacing and visual rhythm of the film around the movement of the garments, using dynamic cuts and moments of visual detail to emphasize fabric, movement, and the individuality of the subjects. The goal was to create something that felt celebratory and contemporary while remaining grounded in the cultural context of the exhibition.

Installation Video

A Contemporary Celebration

Projected at a large scale within the gallery, the video transformed fashion imagery into an immersive visual experience. The combination of movement, music, and projection created an energetic counterpoint to the exhibition's historical and material culture displays.

The result was a bold celebration of Apsáalooke women that connected cultural heritage with contemporary expression. By pairing Indigenous fashion with contemporary Apsáalooke music and a dynamic visual language, the installation presented culture as living, evolving, and deeply connected to the present.

My Role: Creative Direction · Video Editing · Visual Storytelling · Media Integration

Big Horn Mountains Mural

The Field Museum’s Apsáalooke Women and Warriors exhibition explores the history, artistry, and living traditions of the Apsáalooke (Crow) people. One of the curatorial goals was to create a powerful visual connection to the Apsáalooke homeland—specifically, the Big Horn Mountains, a site of deep cultural and spiritual importance.

The challenge was to evoke the landscape’s presence within the gallery in a way that felt immersive while remaining respectful of its cultural significance. The mural became an opportunity to bring the landscape into the exhibition as more than a backdrop, establishing a meaningful sense of place for the stories and objects presented throughout the gallery.

Capturing the Landscape

To authentically represent the landscape, I traveled to Montana to photograph the Big Horn Mountains, capturing a panoramic view that conveyed the scale and character of the landscape.

The photograph became the foundation for a large-scale wall mural. Working with the exhibition design team, we transformed the image into an expansive installation that integrated the landscape directly into the gallery environment.

Creating a Sense of Place

The mural became a visual centerpiece of the exhibition, providing a natural and cultural context for the stories and objects on display. By bringing the landscape itself into the gallery, the experience gave visitors a stronger sense of the place connected to Apsáalooke history, identity, and traditions.

Rather than simply illustrating the homeland, the mural helped establish the landscape as an integral part of the exhibition’s storytelling—inviting visitors to experience the scale and presence of a place that continues to hold profound significance for the Apsáalooke people.

My Role: Creative Direction · Photography · Visual Storytelling · Exhibition Media