His use of the word “Indian” has sparked some concern within the community on whose land the sign stands – the Agua Caliente reservation, belonging to the Cahuilla tribe – who feared it was reductive but Nicholas, who is both Tlingít and Unangax̂, says it’s a knowing reference to a word he disagrees with. Nicholas’ piece, which is titled Never Forget, is a standout work at this year’s Desert X festival, cementing him as a crucial voice in contemporary art. The misrepresentations upheld by institutions transfer into the mistreatment of our communities still today.” A lot of people don’t know that,” Nicholas says of the Los Angeles landmark, which was erected on the Hollywood Hills in 1923 and at first spelled “Hollywoodland.” The message behind the sign aligned, he continues, with “manifest destiny” – the belief in the 19th Century that white settlers were divinely ordained to colonize the US – and consequently “the displacement of Indigenous communities from their lands and homes.” But it also speaks to the role that the film industry has played in perpetuating “a certain version of Indigenous communities,” he says, “not portraying us as we, portraying us as a stereotype.

“That iconic sign was historically placed as a white-only real estate advertisement.

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