Picture walking through the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art — 75 galleries and the expansive Charles Engelhard Court — where the stillness of the paintings is juxtaposed with the dynamic narratives and visuals of Indigenous Americans who roamed these lands long ago. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 13, 17 Native artists launched an ongoing, unapproved digital intervention at the museum, harnessing augmented reality (AR) to incorporate their creations over the 19th-century artworks on display.
Curated by filmmaker Tracy Renée Rector along with a confidential Indigenous curator who financed the initiative, in collaboration with Amplifier’s design lab, this project titled ENCODED: Change the Story, Change the Future challenges the traditional narratives of American history — asking who is truly represented and remembered, and what transformations occur when Indigenous artists reclaim their narratives.
This digital artwork initiative initiates from the museum’s façade and continues into the atrium and onto the second-floor galleries. By employing your mobile device’s camera, you’ll see how Josué Rivas reimagines Thomas Sully’s “Queen Victoria” (1838) into a portrayal of Acosia Red Elk, a jingle dress dancer from the Umatilla tribe urging you to “be a good ancestor” (exemplified in “Standing Strong featuring Acosia Red Elk,” 2021). Similarly, Jerome B. Thompson’s 1858 painting, “The Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain,” is disrupted by two pixelated Skoden warriors, a speech bubble above them quipping: “Look at these guys, acting like they discovered the place” (created by Cass Gardiner and BirdxBird, “Skoden Warriors,” 2025). If you visit the project’s website while at The Met, you’ll unlock these artful overlays, with some newly commissioned while others are specifically designed for this experience.
“The project began nearly four years prior when Amplifier expressed interest in permissionless installations enabled by AR technology,” Cleo Barnett, Executive Director of Amplifier, revealed in an interview with Hyperallergic. She emphasized that “this is not our narrative… It’s a creative response led by artists seeking reclamation.” The title was inspired by a series of discussions between Rector and featured artist Jeremy Dennis of the Shinnecock Nation, which revolved around oyster shells and shell middens—debris accumulating from human habitation.
Rector stated that curating the exhibition in Lenapehoking territory necessitated reflection on “the histories of this area that frequently go unnoticed, or at the very least aren’t immediately visible to many,” showing The Met as a microcosm of these stories. The concealed histories of the land are revealed through art: Nicholas Galanin’s work, “NEVER FORGET” (2021), transforms Jasper Francis Cropsey’s “Valley of Wyoming” (1865) from glorification of settler perspectives of uninhabited land into a powerful call for recognition and restitution.
“This is a clarion call,” insisted Galanin. “The art demands that land acknowledgments must evolve into territorial restitution, prioritizing repair over nostalgia.”
The museum is actively working towards greater accountability regarding Native American art and history, having appointed Patricia Marroquin Norby as its inaugural associate curator of Native American Art in 2020. The subsequent year, The Met showcased 139 pieces by 50 tribes from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection along with a bronze plaque memorializing a land acknowledgment affixed to the museum’s exterior. This exhibition also invited Native artists, historians, and curators to examine several artworks in the same wing where ENCODED unfolds. Despite efforts to improve representation and inclusivity, Barnett remarked, “there remained elements of control that we thought should be avoided to ensure artists were not censored or deemed too provocative.” She cited Galanin’s “How Bout Them Mariners” (2014), which addresses incidents like the 2010 police murder of First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams.
According to the project coordinators, this initiative is not merely a protest but an enrichment of the existing narrative. “The unsanctioned aspect of this exhibition is the work,” noted Cannupa Hanska Luger in an interview with Hyperallergic.
“To act without authorization within a significant institution like The Met, which supposedly defines ‘America’ through its historical collections, inherently disrupts the colonial narrative,” Luger stated. “As Indigenous peoples, our existence has historically persisted without official validation.”
Luger’s installation, “Midéegaadi: Fire” (2021–ongoing), visuals a buffalo dancer over Thomas Cole’s “View on the Catskills – Early Autumn” (1836–37), depicted as a large, graceful figure. In another scene, the dancer strides above the museum’s Fifth Avenue entrance, symbolically calling upon the land’s original inhabitants — buffalo and their human connections — asserting “our bond with this land has never waned.” Rector noted that this sentiment is particularly vital “at a time when numerous historical truths are being deliberately obscured.”
As ENCODED seeks to demonstrate the potential of artistic voice without interference from The Met’s governance, there is hope the museum may acquire some of the displayed works and dialogues — paving the way for a deeper, continual exchange.
“It’s crucial to remember that while American history may seem stagnant, Indigenous cultures are vibrant and continually evolving,” Luger insisted.
