A figure in a shimmering gold pleated dress stands on a rocky outcrop against a cosmic background, holding an elaborate black sculptural headdress aloft. Massive planets with golden orbital rings dominate the surrounding space, while pink and purple light radiates from a distant star, creating a surreal, otherworldly composition that blends earthly and celestial elements.

Wendy Red Star

Thunder Up Above Portfolio, Stands to the Sun, 2011

pigment print on Fine Art Pearl

27 x 40 in (68.6 x 101.6 cm)

Single print not available. Inquire on full portfolio.

In Thunder Up Above (2011), Wendy Red Star imagines Native presence in a futuristic, otherworldly landscape. The series grew from Red Star’s designs for powwow-inspired regalia that combine references to Native dress with elements drawn from Victorian fashion and twentieth-century silhouettes. The resulting figures inhabit fantastical planetary environments, bringing Indigenous identity, history, and futurity into the same visual space. Red Star has described the figures as “First People (Natives) in the Final Frontier,” connecting the series to the history of first contact between Europeans and Native peoples. By placing her figures in unfamiliar celestial landscapes, she plays with ideas of exploration, otherness, and the ways Native people have historically been perceived and represented by outsiders.

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