09/29/2026
Following her solo debut with Tureen at Independent 2025, “Credible, Idiot Strings,” an installation by Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Sonya Kellihercombs), has been acquired by the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal).
The series’ title “Idiot Strings” refers to tethers used to hang mittens. The attached sculptural pockets are roughly hand-sized, suggesting an absent body. The series began as a memorial to three of the artist’s uncles who died by su***de, a cause of death which disproportionately affects Indigenous North Americans. “Credible, Idiot Strings” appropriates geological survey maps of Alaska to acknowledge the 35 recognized abuse claims by Alaska communities against the Catholic Church. The pouches rendered in white symbolize the unrecognized cases, or cases never reported at all.
In February 2027, the Whitney Museum of American Art will open “Sonya Kelliher-Combs: TITIQ/MARK,” a mid-career survey highlighting nearly two decades of the artist’s explorations of history, cultural continuity, self-determination, and land use through her inventive approaches to art-making. The exhibition is the first solo show of a living Indigenous artist in the museum’s history.
