5/22/14

Mystery Museum

 We're switching things up today, beginning with Part 2 of a two day series. Can you guess which museum holds the following artworks? 

This woven Indonesian textile was featured in an exhibition entitled "Order & Borders".

"I am a weaver because I have to be. I am a weaver because we as Native Americans need to hold onto those teachings because it is what keeps us alive. As I started touching the cedar it was talking to me. It woke me up."  Kimberly Miller, Native American basket maker

Though similar in shape, when you look closely, these two Haida hats are quite different in both structuring pattern and painted design. Imagine the time it took to weave, braid, knot, or twine each fiber by hand to create the distinctive pattern of the hat prior to the design being painted onto it.

Carved wood is the common medium between the textured bowl above and chest below; one becomes a textured pattern, while the other tells a story.  And what difference a little paint makes to emphasize the latter's design.   

Why are rows of military dog tags in a museum? 
Do-Ho Suh, a Korean born artist living in the US, created this masterpiece. The influence from his two-year service in the Korean army is easily seen here in Some/One. For more insight into the artist's process and intent, you can watch this from Art21. Notice how the piece featured in the video covers the floor of the entire room and trails into another.


Perhaps no modern glass artist is more famous than Dale Chihuly, and for good reason. In 1971, he left his teaching post at RISD, and with a few students, headed to Washington state, where they discovered an old tree farm fifty miles north of Seattle and founded Pilchuck Glass School. The school is still going strong, attracting artists from around the world to experiment in an open environment and live communally in the serene Pacific Northwest.
Did someone say color? Toots Zinskey was one of those RISD students who came to help Chihuly found and develop Pilchuck, after which she traveled extensively. In 1999, having lived in Italy, Amsterdam and Paris for 16 years (and even Ghana for six months), she returned to the states and settled in Rhode Island, where she continues to work today. Her distinctive heat-formed, glass thread vessels known as "filet de verre" are instantly recognizable. Watch how she does it here.
Speaking of Ghana, El Anatsui was born there - one of 32 children! This African eco-artist, who transforms recycled materials into huge, glistening, etherial pieces, has lived and worked in Nigeria for the last 35 years. El Anatsui's 2013 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, entitled Gravity and Grace, is beautifully reviewed by my friend Ona Villier Ponticelli, on her blog, BiniChic, where she details how his pieces are created.

Modern works created of anything from glass bottles, wire, or shiny beads could easily have been inspired by the African masks and headdresses seen below. (If anyone knows the names of these artists, please let me know in the comments section and credit will be given.)





These life-size mannequins, startlingly real, gave me a jolt as I rounded the corner and came upon them sitting on the floor.
The nomadic Maasai live mainly in Kenya and Tanzania. Their bold, flat beaded necklaces, woven with wire, may be lightweight, but they pack a visual punch, as do these ceremonial headdresses below, decorated with beads, buttons, and shells.

Walking into this gallery, we do a 180, from African beads to European china, porcelain, and silver. What a clean, dramatic way to cohesively present all these disparate pieces.


Well, the game's over, and Megan and Laurette guessed it. So now, on we go to Seattle Art Museum, Part 1





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