Preston Singletary at Museum of Glass
By Alec
Clayton
Published in the Weekly Volcano, Feb. 21, 2019
Raven and the Box of
Daylight at Museum of Glass is a dramatic presentation
in glass art of one of the more enduring stories in the Tlingit tradition as
created by internationally renowned artist Preston Singletary.
Singletary is a Tlingit American from the Pacific Northwest. He studied
glass art in residencies in Sweden and studied under international glass
artists in Vienna. His artworks are featured in the
collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian;
British Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Seattle Art Museum; The Corning
Museum of Glass, New York; and Heard Museum, Phoenix, and in other collections
and exhibitions. He is known for combining traditional Native American art and
imagery with modern glass art
As a youngster, Singletary listened to traditional stories
passed down in the Tlingit culture as told by his great-grandparents. His
work celebrates this Indigenous culture using Tlingit design principles with
objects that incorporate elements from the natural world to tell stories and
histories of individual families.
Generations
of Tlingit children have heard the story of Raven’s adventure, according to the
exhibition curator, Miranda Shkik
Belarde-Lewis, a Tlingit/Zuni Indian. “The story of Raven releasing or ‘stealing’
the daylight is one of the most iconic stories of the Tlingit People of
Southeast Alaska,” Belarde-Lewis says. “The Tlingit name for Raven is YĆ©il. Many people know the basic story,
yet there are variations unique to specific villages and individual
storytellers. We examined five of them, all from
Tlingit storytellers. Each of the stories emphasizes different aspects of the
same story.”
Raven leads visitors on a journey through the transformation
of darkness into light. Different aspects of the Raven story are told through carved
and cast glass sculptures of the animals, people, and land of the Tlingit
people with music and video projections of water, trees and sky. Each
individual piece is beautifully displayed with low lighting and highlights on
each object. In one room of the museum the “ClanHouse” is depicted with two
life-size human figures in Native garb and a long wooden shelf upon with are placed
traditional vessels and sculptures of birds, fish and human figures. In the
“WorldDaylight” room 10 busts of stately Indians are displayed on black
sculpture stands with a projected backdrop of river, land and sky in brilliant
tones of midnight blue. Each room theatrically displays aspects of or
variations on the same story.
This
is more than just an art exhibit; it is an immersive theatrical experience. No
ending date has been set, but the show will run throughout 2019.
Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight , 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, through 2019, $15 adults, $13 students and seniors, free
for military and children 5 and younger, free Third Thursday from 5-8 p.m.,
Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, 253.272.4258,
www.tacomaartmuseum.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment