I mentioned it in my last post, but my super amazing wife and I have moved out of the United States and into an undisclosed country. Before we left, we decided to have a fun staycation in DC and one of the things we went to go see was the temporary exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, Sharing Honors and Burdens. It was a really fantastic exhibition (more reviews: one, two).

My favorite piece was the one pictured up top, titled Charmed (Bestiary) by Joe Feddersen. It is a series of shapes made from glass that are hanging down on strings. The picture really can’t do it justice and it is absolutely gorgeous, especially as the shapes move about in the breeze provided courtesy of the fan on either side. The shapes are a wide range of symbols, many of them drawn from ancient pictographs and petroglyphs, but sprinkled into them are shapes of much more modern things like bicycles or I think I spotted a submarine. It takes a while to take it all in as you scan through the shapes and more and more things jump out at you. It is a little hard to tell whether the artwork is the glass or the shadows it casts, because since the glass is clear it can be hard to see but the shadows behind come out in sharper relief. It is worth viewing from a variety of angles. My favorite part of looking at it was when we first showed up some young women were doing some fashion photos in front of it, and I think it is great when people combine their art in conversation with other artists’.

The show had a range of traditional techniques combined with the more modern ones to tell a variety of stories. The two pieces at the top are Double Raven Chilkat Dancing Blanket and Lineage Robe by Lily Hope. They are made with thigh-spun merino and cedar bark with beaver fur. The bottom piece is We Are the Ocean by Ursala Hudson, made of merino, silk, steel cones, leather, cedar bark, and silk. Our dear sweet baby angel Tinkerbell is easy to catch; all you have to do is put out a box for her and she jumps right in. Likewise my super amazing wife is easy to catch; all you have to do is put up a video of traditional spinning and weaving techniques and she is hooked (mine is steam plants). She and her friend who joined us were mesmerized by the video part of the exhibit for quite some time, and rightfully so. The artists have done some just stunning work with textiles here to create this vivid sculptural pieces and maybe I need a wardrobe update.

The final piece I have for you is Pueblo Revolt 2180 by Virgil Ortiz, and I think it was actually upstairs with more of the Renwick’s collection of pieces that they gathered because they realized they had the work of a bunch of old white dudes and really should even that out and so went on a buying spree of contemporary stuff by non-old white dudes, but nonetheless it fits the theme of Sharing Honors and Burdens. As the description says, the jar references the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 against Spanish colonizers, but, you know, futurizes it and imagines a scenario where they are finally able to once again control their own land. We appreciate ceramics in this household!

And those were the highlights (for me) of the Renwick’s exhibition. It is really fantastic to see a new set of artists on display in museums like the Renwick, and the fact they have forceful stories told with masterful technique is just icing on the cake.