WhoFish - Local Events and Activities

Title:	Marie Watt
Date:	3/2/2024 - 10/20/2024
Address:	Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Austin, TX 78712
Location:	Austin, TX
Hours:	Tuesday-Friday & Sunday: 10:00am - 5:00pm, Saturday: 10:00am - 8:00pm
Cost/Cover:	free - $15
Web Page:	https://blantonmuseum.org/rotation/marie-watt/
Contact Info:	512-471-5482

Details:

Seneca artist Marie Watt uses humble materials to explore history, community, and storytelling through the legacies of Indigenous teachings. Watt’s immersive installation at the Blanton features new and recent sculptural works from her Sky Dances Light series. Tens of thousands of tin cones sewn on mesh netting make up abstract cloud-like forms that hang from the ceiling. Known as “jingles,” these small metal bells historically made from rolled tobacco tin lids reference the Jingle Dress Dance. Today an important Native American pow-wow dance and regalia, the Jingle Dress Dance began as a healing ritual during the 1918 flu pandemic. According to Watt, “one version of the story is that a member of the Ojibwe nation had a sick granddaughter. 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.”