On the National Language: The Poetry of America's Endangered Tongues features some of the few remaining speakers and students of nearly 100 endangered languages living in the United States, photographed in concepts stemming from single words in those languages that do not translate easily into English. Concepts, which are intentionally poetic, are developed in collaboration with the speakers- almost all of whom come from what are by definition traditionally marginalized groups- returning agency and power to those fighting to preserve, maintain, and grow an imperiled foundation of their respective cultures. The project's main goal is to raise awareness for these languages and their revitalization initiatives.
The artist is an endangered language speaker and additionally of distant Monsiyok (Lenape) descent. This project is created and developed with the assistance and consultation of dozens of indigenous nations, as well as both Native and diasporic cultural organizations.
Awarded the 2024 Anthem Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences.
Featured in a six month solo exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center curated by Vicki Phung Smith and Sarah Daymude. Awarded the 2022 fellowship in photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts and grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.
A finalist for the 2022 Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography, the project was also a recipient of a residency at Millay Arts, and medaled in the Prix de la Photographie Paris 2023 and earned the Los Angeles Center for Photography's 2022 'best new exhibition' prize.
Exhibited at the 2021 Prospect New Orleans Triennial, the Los Angeles Center of Photography, and at Photois:real.
Advance praise for the book form of On the National Language, to be released 28 September 2024 and featuring interstitial poetry by DeLanna Studi, dg nanouk okpik, James Aronhióta's Stevens, Crisosto Apache, Matthew Lippmann, Philip Metres, KT Herr, Lehua Taitano, and Linda Hogan:
Our verdict? Get it. A rich survey— author and photographer Van Sise offers a rich profile of the many languages found in the United States [and] does a great job of contextualizing the common tragedy of language loss.
Kirkus Reviews
In a dazzling interplay of words and images, B. A. Van Sise’s On the National Language conjures the richness of North America’s endangered languages- there are cultural summaries, representative words, and evocative photographs of the one hundred speakers, as well as poetry and bits of memoir. survived after being “tucked up in corners, hidden under blankets, rolled up in tongues.” Van Sise describes an exciting cultural programming renaissance that’s reaching new speakers and some tricky linguistics detective work that resurrects languages that went generations without being spoken. The book shimmies from Alaskan Russian to South Californian Tongva to Georgia’s Afro-Seminole Creole, showcasing the diversity of amazing words and concepts among different traditions. This creative and important collection of words you never knew you really needed is best summed up by the Bukhari word amonati—“something you hold and keep safe for someone else.”
Rachel Jagareski
Foreword Reviews
As a photographer and a linguist, Van Sise has a few tricks up his sleeve when deciding how to convey the visual and literal aspects of projects. His photographer-side delights in performing sleight-of-hand visual techniques which lead the viewer into attractively complex narratives. The linguist-side places language in the spotlight too – so people will learn and understand that these languages aren’t extinct, these people aren’t extinct. And that the project is incredibly rich.... The ‘person’ of the language speaker and the deeper meanings of their linguistic anchors are revealed by B.A.’s innovative, creative, and humorous vision in ways that occasionally take you by surprise but always feel authentic.
Witty, and subtle and smart. Interplay between signage, language, the literal and metaphoric meanings, all of it, comes across visually in a flash, like dry lightning at dusk.
Cary Benbow
f/stop Magazine
