Fusing Traditions exhibit
Oct. 5th, 2005 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianThe professor of my PNW-art class is a curator at the Burke Museum, so we have heard of little but the Fusing Traditions exhibit. It's modern Native American glasswork, which is often traditional in style and sometimes not at all. I took notes on the pieces I had something to say about, which was most. Seattle folks should go see, since some of this stuff is really neat.
Martin Oliver (Quinault/ Isleta Pueblo), "Facing You"
Dichroic glass face maybe a foot across, fleshy and grinning. More realistic than my flatwork ideas of PNW art styles. Poorly displayed: stuck in a corner where I couldn't examine the location of the dichroic layer or see what color it was when light shone through.
Preston Singletary, "Wall Screen Panel"
Flat panel with low-relief abstract designs in basic northern-region style. The black layer was fused onto the bubbly clear backing layer, then carved away; red paint was applied to some uncarved areas. Held vertical in a clean metal frame.
Preston Singletary, "Blue Fin"
Beautiful, smooth form, not even really like a fin because it's thicker and rounder -- some cross between a fin and a wave. Sandblasted PNW-style abstract designs evoke many animals but represent none completely.
Preston Singletary, "Raven Steals the Moon"
Black-on-red PNW-style raven head with 50-cm? beak pointed upward, and a small human-faced translucent disk in it. I've seen this one in class too much to have anything to say about it.
Shaun Peterson, "Defining Wolf"
Circular glass piece on sparely carved and painted redcedar background, shieldlike. Two PNW-stylized wolves on the glass, facing each other. Wolf is: the eye, the ear, the mouth, muscular limbs, U-forms as growling stomach. Verdigris paint on redcedar-wood [pinched-V bits that are carved inward] especially beautiful.
Wayne G. Price, "Tlingit Bear Visions"
Traditional PNW bear mask, but with wavery clear glass for eyes, making it look more real, and for teeth, making it very effectively seem supernatural.
David Svenson, "Light as a Feather"
Wooden feather-shape lit with pink neon at the quill end and blue-green at the other. I acknowledge the pun, but think the backlighting detracted from the feather's form. Maybe without the harsh overhead spotlight it would have worked. (It's my own prejudice to have wanted firelight or canoes evoked.)
David Svenson, "Touched by the Better Angels of Our Nature"
A very funny piece. Our angels are of neon tube, dressed in hideous orange-and-green bathing costumes, with fish lips. They remind me so much of the over-the-top, hilarious parts of nature -- mating displays, bizarrely formed tropical fish, that sort of thing. Oh, and the angels' current mission is around the carved wooden head of someone greatly resembling Abe Lincoln, whose hat-brim is a zappy red tube.
John Hagen, "Moonlit"
A lightly pebbled cast-glass moon with a notable faultline across its PNW-stylized human face looks puzzled or shocked to find itself embedded in a wooden tombstone-shape in a gallery. Eyes look impassively from the lower right of its pedestal.
Marcus Amerman, "Butterfly Maiden"
Realistic portrait in flat, framed seed-beading of a slim nude woman, butterfly wings behind her, in deep blue shades. I felt a lot more positive about this one when I thought it was a woman artist making it; now it belongs in the art room at a con. (This artist did some 3D work in seed beads toward which I felt less antagonistic, but they didn't do anything for me either.)
Robert John Tannahill, "False Faces Series"
Bulbous eyes? and noses? mouths? of glass protrude through holes in wooden cylinders wired in place with copper. Why are they false? Why bound?
Joe David, "Spirit Wolf"
Translucent glass casting of a real wolf skull, painted with red dots and green lines, eye and nose spaces filled with rolled redcedar bark, adorned with feathers and animal hair. Very evocative of spirit to me, raised in a Western culture. Loved the bark, not sure why.
Conrad House, "Lightning Prayersticks Protected by Turquoise Mountain Lions"
Very simple. Thick rods of borosilicate glass, two stacked triangles and an attachment area sandblasted on; beads, feathers, and very iconic turquoise mountain lions tied on. (Lions are a thick curve with tiny ear-bumps and larger leg-bumps.) The glass implied lightning surprisingly well for not using any symbols I'd ever seen before.
Conrad House, "Mountain Lions"
Larger sandcast glass mountain lions similar to above but straight rather than curved. One clear and bubbly, one filled with frit and chunks and stringer; both with feathers and smaller bars of glass tied on.
Susan A. Point, "Mythical Bird"
A giant spindle with huge glass whorl, resting on a carved wooden base full of curves that steps gradually down to one side. On the whorl is a great PNW-stylized bird, its outsides carved on the convex side, and its torso patterning and pinched-V feathers? on the head on the concave side. My favorite piece: I arrogantly like the way it fuses traditional women's art with the modern medium, and the juxtaposition of the bird image with the riverlike base pleases me.
Clarissa Hudson, "Egyptian Tlingit - Headdress"
Maybe I just need more context, but this beaded wig didn't interest me at all.
C. S. Tarpley, "Arabesque"
A small urn. Stunning, deep red glass blown out through? electroformed copper reliefs which leave open complex spiral designs.
C. S. Tarpley, "Doumbeque"
A doumbek, goatskin top and all. (In a case, so playability could not be investigated.) Similar technique to "Arabesque", but the copper here leaves open thick Celtic-style braided knotwork designs for blue glass to bulge through. Bands of glass in several places were carved as if they were wood, leaving a lovely, matte, geometric chisel pattern. Lovely. Leaves me wondering about cultural appropriation and when it's okay, though.
I had enough time to go to my favorite parts of the museum, too. Trilobites and crinoids, the rhino cast you can climb into, the giant-sloth skeleton, and best of all the "who are you?" book that visitors can write and draw in. Today I saw a lovely page from a Costa Rican, who drew wildlife from their home, including the majestic tapir, or DANTA en costarriqueño. If anyone should wish to contact the fine artist, jaguarmojado@yahoo was written there.
(I have proven to still be really moody. There's a looping video as you go into the lower part of the museum, which is devoted to all the peoples of the Pacific, showing people welcoming visitors to the museum in all languages. I stood to watch it for a minute and started getting overwhelmed by the sweetness. I was fixin' to walk away and control myself when a phalanx of Japanese children appeared in full traditional dress and chorused "konnichiwa!" Slain by cute. The best part was that, if you know to listen for it, you can hear "konnichiwa" from everywhere on that floor when the tape loops past it. I became inured to it over time.)
Martin Oliver (Quinault/ Isleta Pueblo), "Facing You"
Dichroic glass face maybe a foot across, fleshy and grinning. More realistic than my flatwork ideas of PNW art styles. Poorly displayed: stuck in a corner where I couldn't examine the location of the dichroic layer or see what color it was when light shone through.
Preston Singletary, "Wall Screen Panel"
Flat panel with low-relief abstract designs in basic northern-region style. The black layer was fused onto the bubbly clear backing layer, then carved away; red paint was applied to some uncarved areas. Held vertical in a clean metal frame.
Preston Singletary, "Blue Fin"
Beautiful, smooth form, not even really like a fin because it's thicker and rounder -- some cross between a fin and a wave. Sandblasted PNW-style abstract designs evoke many animals but represent none completely.
Preston Singletary, "Raven Steals the Moon"
Black-on-red PNW-style raven head with 50-cm? beak pointed upward, and a small human-faced translucent disk in it. I've seen this one in class too much to have anything to say about it.
Shaun Peterson, "Defining Wolf"
Circular glass piece on sparely carved and painted redcedar background, shieldlike. Two PNW-stylized wolves on the glass, facing each other. Wolf is: the eye, the ear, the mouth, muscular limbs, U-forms as growling stomach. Verdigris paint on redcedar-wood [pinched-V bits that are carved inward] especially beautiful.
Wayne G. Price, "Tlingit Bear Visions"
Traditional PNW bear mask, but with wavery clear glass for eyes, making it look more real, and for teeth, making it very effectively seem supernatural.
David Svenson, "Light as a Feather"
Wooden feather-shape lit with pink neon at the quill end and blue-green at the other. I acknowledge the pun, but think the backlighting detracted from the feather's form. Maybe without the harsh overhead spotlight it would have worked. (It's my own prejudice to have wanted firelight or canoes evoked.)
David Svenson, "Touched by the Better Angels of Our Nature"
A very funny piece. Our angels are of neon tube, dressed in hideous orange-and-green bathing costumes, with fish lips. They remind me so much of the over-the-top, hilarious parts of nature -- mating displays, bizarrely formed tropical fish, that sort of thing. Oh, and the angels' current mission is around the carved wooden head of someone greatly resembling Abe Lincoln, whose hat-brim is a zappy red tube.
John Hagen, "Moonlit"
A lightly pebbled cast-glass moon with a notable faultline across its PNW-stylized human face looks puzzled or shocked to find itself embedded in a wooden tombstone-shape in a gallery. Eyes look impassively from the lower right of its pedestal.
Marcus Amerman, "Butterfly Maiden"
Realistic portrait in flat, framed seed-beading of a slim nude woman, butterfly wings behind her, in deep blue shades. I felt a lot more positive about this one when I thought it was a woman artist making it; now it belongs in the art room at a con. (This artist did some 3D work in seed beads toward which I felt less antagonistic, but they didn't do anything for me either.)
Robert John Tannahill, "False Faces Series"
Bulbous eyes? and noses? mouths? of glass protrude through holes in wooden cylinders wired in place with copper. Why are they false? Why bound?
Joe David, "Spirit Wolf"
Translucent glass casting of a real wolf skull, painted with red dots and green lines, eye and nose spaces filled with rolled redcedar bark, adorned with feathers and animal hair. Very evocative of spirit to me, raised in a Western culture. Loved the bark, not sure why.
Conrad House, "Lightning Prayersticks Protected by Turquoise Mountain Lions"
Very simple. Thick rods of borosilicate glass, two stacked triangles and an attachment area sandblasted on; beads, feathers, and very iconic turquoise mountain lions tied on. (Lions are a thick curve with tiny ear-bumps and larger leg-bumps.) The glass implied lightning surprisingly well for not using any symbols I'd ever seen before.
Conrad House, "Mountain Lions"
Larger sandcast glass mountain lions similar to above but straight rather than curved. One clear and bubbly, one filled with frit and chunks and stringer; both with feathers and smaller bars of glass tied on.
Susan A. Point, "Mythical Bird"
A giant spindle with huge glass whorl, resting on a carved wooden base full of curves that steps gradually down to one side. On the whorl is a great PNW-stylized bird, its outsides carved on the convex side, and its torso patterning and pinched-V feathers? on the head on the concave side. My favorite piece: I arrogantly like the way it fuses traditional women's art with the modern medium, and the juxtaposition of the bird image with the riverlike base pleases me.
Clarissa Hudson, "Egyptian Tlingit - Headdress"
Maybe I just need more context, but this beaded wig didn't interest me at all.
C. S. Tarpley, "Arabesque"
A small urn. Stunning, deep red glass blown out through? electroformed copper reliefs which leave open complex spiral designs.
C. S. Tarpley, "Doumbeque"
A doumbek, goatskin top and all. (In a case, so playability could not be investigated.) Similar technique to "Arabesque", but the copper here leaves open thick Celtic-style braided knotwork designs for blue glass to bulge through. Bands of glass in several places were carved as if they were wood, leaving a lovely, matte, geometric chisel pattern. Lovely. Leaves me wondering about cultural appropriation and when it's okay, though.
I had enough time to go to my favorite parts of the museum, too. Trilobites and crinoids, the rhino cast you can climb into, the giant-sloth skeleton, and best of all the "who are you?" book that visitors can write and draw in. Today I saw a lovely page from a Costa Rican, who drew wildlife from their home, including the majestic tapir, or DANTA en costarriqueño. If anyone should wish to contact the fine artist, jaguarmojado@yahoo was written there.
(I have proven to still be really moody. There's a looping video as you go into the lower part of the museum, which is devoted to all the peoples of the Pacific, showing people welcoming visitors to the museum in all languages. I stood to watch it for a minute and started getting overwhelmed by the sweetness. I was fixin' to walk away and control myself when a phalanx of Japanese children appeared in full traditional dress and chorused "konnichiwa!" Slain by cute. The best part was that, if you know to listen for it, you can hear "konnichiwa" from everywhere on that floor when the tape loops past it. I became inured to it over time.)
