More Clouds, More Rain 

Editor: So, we're looking at "More Clouds, More Rain" by Logan Maxwell Hagege, an acrylic painting, and what strikes me immediately is the tranquility. It feels almost…staged? In a beautiful way. What’s your read on this piece? Curator: Staged is interesting, because that acknowledges the way art historical forces have shaped this artist. Consider how Native American subjects have been portrayed, often romantically or as a vanishing race. This contemporary artist navigates that loaded history, and is no doubt informed by earlier depictions in the same breath as they want to subvert it. Do you think the title pushes us in a particular direction? Editor: Well, the clouds certainly have a presence – almost monumental – and add to this idea of landscape. But the title feels a bit ironic? Given how static everything seems. Is that purposeful, do you think? Curator: Exactly! It’s that tension between expectation and reality. Rain signifies change, movement, perhaps even hardship. But everything is so carefully arranged. Is Hagege commenting on the performative aspect of identity, playing on the expectations placed on Indigenous representation within the art world itself? Look at the clean edges, geometric patterns – it's not raw reality, is it? Editor: Definitely not. The colours are vibrant but also somehow softened. So is it a critique, or is it something else? A celebration, maybe, filtered through that awareness of history? Curator: I think it’s a complex negotiation. Hagege seems to be acknowledging the fraught history while simultaneously asserting a contemporary Indigenous identity that isn't defined *by* that history, which demands the image on its own terms, both aesthetic and cultural. Perhaps the title is simply suggesting an emotional heaviness, which, because of its presence as 'art' immediately implicates institutions in its aesthetic life. Editor: I see. The more we unpack it, the more it resists a simple interpretation. It's really about the conversation it creates. Curator: Precisely. It demonstrates how an image participates in and shapes cultural dialogues far beyond the frame.