Hey all,
Today was the last day for the Coast Salish Art Exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. I was lucky enough to slip in yesterday after my family got delayed on a departure due to the insane floods we’ve been having all around Washington.
Anyway, the exhibit was amazing. It had both historical and contemporary pieces and once again I was struck by how much art and everyday life was intertwined.
Here’s a few examples:
A Cedar-bark dress
Spindle-whorls carved with spirit-faces inherited in one’s family
A Mountain Goat Wool Blanket called “Frog-Snow Robe” meant to represent the time in late Feb. or early March when the frogs start singing and the snow melts
Cedar Long houses covered with life-size carvings of mink
Baskets, baskets, and more baskets
The “center piece” of the exhibit (if it could really have one) was a wool blanket woven in honor of the exhibit containing different elements that represented the life-force of all the participants and images of backbones represented the solidity of traditional culture.
To me this is what Rewilding art is all about. All of the pieces in the exhibit were either made of natural materials or had some representation of the natural world or both.
The museum created a book for the exhibit entitled, “S’abadeb: The Gifts”. I haven’t read the book yet, but brought a copy home.
I only wish I had gotten to the exhibit earlier, so I could have gone more than once…