Marie Watt  (Seneca and German-Scots)
Companion Species: Assembly (Auntie) and Companion Species: Assembly (Guardian Tree), 2020 
Reclaimed wool blankets, embroidery floss, thread, cotton twill tape, and tin jingles 
Tia Collection, Santa Fe, NM, Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, New York 
 

Marie Watt in residence at the Carlos 

Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger is the first exhibition to feature together the work of Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, two leading Indigenous contemporary artists whose processes focus on collaborative artmaking. The exhibition features over two dozen mixed-media sculptures, wall hangings, and large-scale installation works by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, along with a monumental artist-guided community artwork. 

Marie Watt, who resides in Portland, Oregon, is a citizen of the Seneca Nation and has German-Scots ancestry. Cannupa Hanska Luger, who is based in New Mexico, is a citizen of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara) of Fort Berthold and has Lakota and European ancestry.

From September 23-28, Marie will be in residence at the Carlos, discussing her work and bringing people together to create art and community. Join us for one or more of the public programs listed below.

Cannupa will return to the Carlos for a residency in November. Information will be available on our calendar soon.  

In This Moment

Friday, September 24 | Noon
Ackerman Hall

Join curators John Lukavic from the Denver Art Museum and Megan O'Neil from the Carlos Museum for a conversation with contemporary Indigenous artists Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger whose work is featured in the exhibition Each/Other. The conversation will address the ways in which these two artists view their work as a collective process of creation focused on engagement with community, materials, and the land.

Masks are required at this event in accordance with Emory University's Gathering Policy.

If you prefer to access the program through Zoom rather than in person, click HERE to register.  

Artist Talk

Sunday, September 26 | Noon
Ackerman Hall

“Once there were songs for everything, Songs for planting, for growing, for harvesting, For eating, getting drunk, falling asleep, For sunrise, birth, mind-break, and war…”

                                                         —Joy Harjo, excerpt from An American Sunrise
 

Marie Watt’s recent work “sings songs for sunrise.” In a series of new works, she continues and expands her approach to working with blankets, words, and stories to evoke a sensual experience of the natural world using a collection of repurposed blankets; their saturated colors suggestive of the hues of sun-lit earth.

As part of her artist-in-residency at the Carlos Museum in conjunction with the exhibition Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, Marie will discuss this new body of work, from the inspiration she found in the traditions of the Seneca Nation and in the poetry of Joy Harjo to the ways she uses textiles to create blocks of color—salmon, ochre, rose, honey, lemon, and cranberry—to create “an intimate and sensuous experience of light moving over the horizon, of the radiant change sweeping across sky and ground.”

“What is a sunrise? How does it connect us? In Seneca culture, we offer a thanksgiving address each morning to celebrate the continued connectedness of all things. It’s otherwise too easy to take for granted the revolutions of the sun, the miracle of its daily magic. I’m fascinated by the sunrise — how the sunrise is not the same as sunset; how the quality of sunrise is different from East to West. Isn’t it astounding how at every moment, the sun is rising and setting, somewhere in the world? The sunrise connects us.”  —Marie Watt

Masks are required at this event in accordance with Emory University's Gathering Policy.

If you prefer to access the program through Zoom rather than in person, click HERE to register.

Photo by Josue Rivas

Sewing Circle

Sunday, September 26 | 1-4 PM
Emory University Quadrangle*

Artist Marie Watt has been holding sewing circles for 15 years. They are integral to her artistic practice as direct opportunities to engage with communities and build relationships, to share her belief in the connective power of creating together. The many hands and voices brought together during sewing circles inform and define the eventual piece, embedding the participants’ stories into the very stitches and knots.

Sewing circles are inclusive by nature and by design. Everyone’s voice is equal in a circle; circles can expand or contract as needed to create space. The panels being stitched often start with an Indigenous point of view and these themes then become touchstones for conversation, connection, and cross-cultural knowledge generously exchanged by participants.

Join Marie Watt on the historic Emory quadrangle for a sewing circle inspired by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s collection, An American Sunrise.

• No sewing experience necessary
• Come and go as you wish
• Bring a friend and pass the invitation on to others

*In the event of rain, the sewing circle will be held in Ackerman Hall on Level Three of the Museum and masks will be required in accordance with Emory University's Gathering Policy.