MARIE WATT: BLANKET STORIES: LADDER

Marie Watt, Fritz Scholder Gallery

What memories does the blanket, a familiar everyday household item evoke for you? A favorite blanket from childhood that comforted and soothed? Sliding down into the warmth and protection of the blankets, as the alarm clock rings loudly in the morning; pulling the blankets up and over your head to muffle the intrusive noise? Cool ocean breezes and hot sand of a summer picnic spread out on a blanket? A new born infant, soft with that sweet baby smell wrapped tight in her/his blanket? Memories of warmth, security and comfort are invoked in these common, well known, yet taken for granted items.

Blankets are very important in Native American communities and function as markers for memories and stories. The trade blankets brought by the Europeans; the Small Pox infected blankets distributed to the Plains people; and learning to quilt blankets at government boarding schools far from home. These troubling memories associated with blankets for Indian people have been transformed. Today, blankets are emblems of respect and for honoring. They are given away to signify important life events—births, naming ceremonies, coming-of-age, graduations and marriage—times of honoring. In Native communities the privilege of giving away a blanket is as much an honor as it is to receive one.

Marie Watt’s Blanket Stories Series examines the stories and histories that blankets represent. “I am interested in human stories and rituals implicit in everyday objects. Currently I am exploring the history of wool blankets. I find myself attracted to the blanket’s two- and three-dimensional qualities. On a wall, a blanket functions as a tapestry, but on a body it functions as a robe and living object.” Continuum, August 2004.  Watt uses these common, ordinary blankets conceptually, metaphorically and as a medium for her installation pieces. The use of blankets lends to the viewer a sense of shared understanding of collective memory and histories. “My work is about social and cultural histories imbedded in commonplace objects. I consciously draw from indigenous design principles, oral traditions and personal experience to shape the inner logic of the work I make.” Continuum, August 2004. (sic)”High Art” material is used to memorialize the common blanket.” Artist’s Statement, 2005. Margaret Archuleta (excerpts)

FROM THE ARTIST

Marie Watt, Fritz Scholder Gallery

I have been working with columnar forms for some time now. The first time I thought of them as being a ladder-like was when I made a connection (to) our Iroquois Creation story heroine, Sky Woman, (who) falls from the sky and is supported by a motley crew of animal relatives that make a home for her that we now call Turtle Island. I think the relationship between sky and ground, or heaven and earth, is an important one. It is different from western traditions which often use a horizon line for spatial orientation.

I like how Indigenous Creation Stories connect us to soil and sky. Like the blankets, this vertical orientation ( up and down) is easy to take for granted. But it is also the space where smoke rises, winged creatures fly, prayers are offered and water collects and releases.

Ladders are objects we step on. They move moved our bodies upward and downward allowing us to get a new perspective on things. Ladders are tools. They are often used to reach a place that would otherwise be difficult to access. They allow us to mend and fix. If you have a rich imagination, it is fun to think about where a ladder would go if it continued forever. Ladders are of this world and other worldly…they are conduits for story and fuel imagination about the space within and beyond them. -Marie Watt

Almanac (Glacier Park, Granny Beebe, Satin Ledger), 2005 bronze, wool blankets and reclaimed red cedar

Blue Mountain Lullaby, 2005 wool, satin bindings, calico fabric 16 1/8” x 21”