Contemporary Project – Marie Watt: SKY DANCES LIGHT
Saturday, March 2, 2024 - Sunday, October 20, 2024
Seneca artist Marie Watt uses humble materials to explore history, community, and storytelling
through the legacies of Indigenous teachings.
Watt’s immersive installation at the Blanton features new and recent sculptural works from her "Sky Dances Light" series. Tens of thousands of tin cones sewn on mesh netting make up abstract cloud-like forms that hang from the ceiling. Known as “jingles,” these small metal bells historically made from rolled tobacco tin lids reference the Jingle Dress Dance. Today an important Native American pow-wow dance and regalia, the Jingle Dress Dance began as a healing ritual during the 1918 flu pandemic. According to Watt, “one version of the story is that a member of the Ojibwe nation had a sick granddaughter. They had this dream in which they were instructed to attach tin jingles to a dress and have women dance around this sick child while wearing the dress. The idea was that the sound would be healing. It’s assumed the medicine worked, because the dance was shared with other communities.”
To Watt, the Jingle Dress Dance’s origins as a healing rite connect to our present moment of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The forest of jingle clouds invites us to create bonds across human history, generations, and with each other.
Organized by Hannah Klemm, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art
Marie Watt: SKY DANCES LIGHT is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art.
Support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided in part by Ellen and David Berman and Suzanne Deal Booth.
Gallery Textthrough the legacies of Indigenous teachings.
Watt’s immersive installation at the Blanton features new and recent sculptural works from her "Sky Dances Light" series. Tens of thousands of tin cones sewn on mesh netting make up abstract cloud-like forms that hang from the ceiling. Known as “jingles,” these small metal bells historically made from rolled tobacco tin lids reference the Jingle Dress Dance. Today an important Native American pow-wow dance and regalia, the Jingle Dress Dance began as a healing ritual during the 1918 flu pandemic. According to Watt, “one version of the story is that a member of the Ojibwe nation had a sick granddaughter. They had this dream in which they were instructed to attach tin jingles to a dress and have women dance around this sick child while wearing the dress. The idea was that the sound would be healing. It’s assumed the medicine worked, because the dance was shared with other communities.”
To Watt, the Jingle Dress Dance’s origins as a healing rite connect to our present moment of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The forest of jingle clouds invites us to create bonds across human history, generations, and with each other.
Organized by Hannah Klemm, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art
Marie Watt: SKY DANCES LIGHT is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art.
Support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided in part by Ellen and David Berman and Suzanne Deal Booth.
Marie Watt, an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation, has created an immersive realm where evocative sculptural forms hover cloud-like between Earth and Sky. Light gently filters through a web of netting covered with cascading tin cones, known as “jingles.” The artist extends a rare invitation in a museum setting--to brush gently against the sculptures and activate the sound of rustling jingles. Watt’s use of the jingle, historically made from rolled tobacco tin lids, recognizes the Jingle Dress Dance, an important element of today’s Native American powwow ceremonies and regalia which began as a healing ritual during the 1918 flu pandemic.
As one version of the story goes, a member of the Ojibwe Nation had a sick granddaughter. In a dream, the grandparent was instructed to attach tin jingles to a dress and have women dance around the child, healing her through sound and rhythm. Despite its longtime prohibition, the Jingle Dress Dance has endured for generations. Starting in 1883, Native American dances, ceremonial gatherings, and feasts were banned by the United States Federal government. The ban was not fully repealed until 1978 with the passing of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which finally guaranteed First Amendment protections for Native Americans.
The video in the gallery further connects the sculptures to these histories. In the work, Acosia Red Elk, a 10-time world champion jingle dress dancer from the Umatilla tribe, activates the sculptures at the Portland Garment Factory, where they were produced. Her dance honors these new creations and the ancestral traditions that surround them. The sound of the jingles embodies their healing power, while the material itself radiates resilience and strength. Spectators become participants, contributing to a rhythmic tapestry fusing the sonic and visual, fostering connection through interaction.
About the Artist
Portland, Oregon-based artist Marie Watt (born 1976, Seattle, WA) is an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation with German-Scot ancestry. Her work invites collaboration and conversation, creating space for human connection. Watt has an MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University; she attended Willamette University and the Institute of American Indian Arts; and in 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Willamette University. Watt’s work has been exhibited at: The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Denver Art Museum, to name a few. Her work is in the permanent collections of National Gallery of Canada, the Portland Art Museum, the Smithsonian, Renwick Gallery, Albright-Knox Gallery, The Whitney Museum in NY, Seattle Art Museum, US Library of Congress, Denver Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum, and more.
Portland, Oregon-based artist Marie Watt (born 1976, Seattle, WA) is an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation with German-Scot ancestry. Her work invites collaboration and conversation, creating space for human connection. Watt has an MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University; she attended Willamette University and the Institute of American Indian Arts; and in 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Willamette University. Watt’s work has been exhibited at: The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Denver Art Museum, to name a few. Her work is in the permanent collections of National Gallery of Canada, the Portland Art Museum, the Smithsonian, Renwick Gallery, Albright-Knox Gallery, The Whitney Museum in NY, Seattle Art Museum, US Library of Congress, Denver Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum, and more.
Marie Watt, integrante registrada de la nación séneca, ha creado un reino inmersivo en el que formas escultóricas evocadoras flotan como nubes entre la tierra y el cielo. La luz se filtra sutilmente a través de una red cubierta de conos pequeños de hojalata dispuestos en cascada y a los cuales se conoce como "cascabeles". Mediante una invitación poco usual dentro de un museo, la artista nos anima a rozar las esculturas con suavidad y activar el sonido susurrante de los cascabeles. El uso que hace Watt de los cascabeles, fabricadas tradicionalmente con tapas de latas de tabaco para enrollar, constituye un reconocimiento a la Jingle Dress Dance (danza del vestido de cascabeles), un elemento importante de las ceremonias y los atuendos del actual powwow de la comunidad nativa estadounidense, que comenzó como un ritual de curación durante la pandemia de gripe de 1918.
Según una versión de la historia, un miembro de la nación ojibwa tenía una nieta enferma. En un sueño, el abuelo recibió instrucciones de atar cascabeles de hojalata a un vestido y hacer que las mujeres bailaran alrededor de la niña, para curarla a través del sonido y el ritmo. A pesar de que fue prohibida durante mucho tiempo, la danza del vestido de cascabeles ha perdurado a lo largo de generaciones. A partir de 1883, las danzas, las reuniones ceremoniales y las fiestas de la comunidad nativa estadounidense fueron prohibidas por el gobierno federal de Estados Unidos. La prohibición no se derogó por completo hasta 1978, que fue cuando se aprobó la Ley de Libertad Religiosa de Indígenas Norteamericanos, la cual por fin garantizaba que se respetarían las protecciones establecidas en la Primera Enmienda para la comunidad nativa estadounidense.
El video de la galería conecta aún más las esculturas con estas historias. En la obra, Acosia Red Elk, diez veces campeona mundial de la danza del vestido de cascabeles por la tribu umatilla, activa las esculturas en la Portland Garment Factory, que es el lugar donde se produjeron. Su danza rinde homenaje a estas nuevas creaciones y a las tradiciones ancestrales que las rodean. El sonido de los cascabeles encarna su poder curativo, mientras que el propio material irradia una sensación de fuerza y resiliencia. El público se convierte en participante, de modo que contribuye a un tapiz rítmico que fusiona lo sonoro y lo visual, potenciando así la conexión a través de la interacción.