Sky Dances Light: Threshold II was created as a site-specific sculpture for Marie Watt’s inaugural solo exhibition with Kavi Gupta gallery in 2023. TItled Sky Dances Light, the exhibition debuted Watt’s series of jingle sculptures: biomorphic, hanging forms composed of jingle cones, rolled pieces of tin historically fashioned from the circular lids of tobacco containers. This shimmering curtain of tin jingles was custom made to hang in the entrance of the exhibition. As visitors cross the threshold, their body sets the curtain into motion, generating ethereal sounds and instigating a tactile connection between viewer and art. “I invite people to walk though something they can activate with their presence, that they can feel and hear,” says Watt. “I am hoping to set the table for something that's interactive and reflective.” Inviting people to explore and expand the boundaries of mutual relationships is an essential part of Watt’s aesthetic vocabulary. As a citizen of the Seneca Nation and a woman with German-Scots ancestry, her perspective has been shaped by values of connectivity and sharing. “I am interested in storytelling and ways in which we trade stories,” Watt says. “I like to set up situations for stories to be exchanged, shared, amplified, and archived.” Though their invention and use as fashion adornments dates at least to the late 1800s, tin jingles became an iconic element of Indigenous dance traditions during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. “One version of the story is that a member of the Ojibwa nation had a sick granddaughter,” recalls Watt. “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.” Connecting to the present through the legacies of our ancestors, Watt’s jingle sculptures remind us of the bonds we share with each other and across generations, and the healing that can flow from connection, music, and community.