-
-
Marie Watt
Sky Dances Light: Solo XII, 2023Piece can be combined with a second work to form a larger Diptych seen in various options in the following installation images
Vintage Tin jingles, cotton twill tape, polyester mesh, steel hanging system
72 x 40 x 40 in.
182.9 x 101.6 x 101.6 cm. 49 lbs -
Kavi Gupta presents Sky Dances Light, a solo exhibition of new works by Marie Watt, whose bold, multi-sensory visual language celebrates and fosters community connections.Embracing and centering the stories embedded within materials, Watt’s debut exhibition with the gallery features her highly anticipated new series of sculptures composed of jingle cones, rolled pieces of tin historically fashioned from the circular lids of tobacco containers.Suspended in a luminous constellation above the gallery floor, Watt’s biomorphic jingle sculptures form an immersive landscape and soundscape. As the works float and turn in relation to each other, the viewer is invited to navigate the space as though stepping around the trunks of elder trees, gazing up at clouds overhead, or brushing against overgrown foliage. -
-
-
Visitors enter the exhibition through a shimmering curtain of tin jingles. As they cross this 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. -
Marie Watt
Sky Dances Light: Threshold II, 2023Vintage, original, reservation tobacco can made, Tin jingles, cotton twill museum tape, polyester mesh and steel/chain hanging system
THIS SPECIFIC WORK IS ADJUSTABLE AND SITE-SPECIFIC. CAN BE HUNG IN DOORWAY OR ON WALL
106 x 108 in.
269.2 x 274.3 cm
(Video Forthcoming) -
“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.”
-
The jingle sculptures bring together several important elements of Watt’s artistic language, including materials related to Indigenous history and gestures intended to spark healing.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, the works in Sky Dances Light remind us of the bonds we share with each other and across generations, and the healing that can flow from connection, music, and community. -
-
-
Marie Watt
Vivid Dream (Loop), 2023Copper plate photogravure, printed on gampi, with silver leaf, calico fabric, collage, and cotton string elements.
31 1/2 x 19 in.
80 x 48.3 cm
Edition of 5 plus 1 AP -
-
-
-
-
Marie Watt: Meet the Native Women Artists Claiming Their Place in New York
May 10, 2023A wave of exhibitions this season highlights the diverse cultural production of Native women artists. If you’re in the New York area this month, you are poised to experience an... -
Native Song: Marie Watt’s Communal Incantations in Fabric
November 3, 2021“Once, there were songs for everything.” Marie Watt , whose solo show “Companion Species (At What Cost)” runs through January 9, 2022, at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clifton, New...
-
-
Watt’s work is included in the permanent collections of more than 80 museums and public institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Art, National Gallery of Canada Ottawa, Ontario, CA; Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, NY; and the Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore, MD.
Marie Watt: Sky Dances Light: 835 W Washington Blvd. FL 1.
Past viewing_room
