Marianne Nicolson shares an affirmation of her Dzawada’enuxw traditional culture and language as well as a reassertion of an old belief in the human balance between the body and the soul. Nicolson’s sources are iconic images from the Dzawada’enuxw culture, one of the many nations of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples in British Columbia. Illuminating the gallery space, a light box casts shadows to suggest a place of reflection. The exhibition consists of only this light box, a glass “bentwood” chest created in Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous style. The light from inside the box casts shadows of a raven, an owl and two young girls. Says Nicolson, “When I saw the captured heritage of our nations on the market and in museums, it seemed to me that we too had been encased in glass.”

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From the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery website:

“Women have long been the creative force behind Native American art, yet their individual contributions have been largely unrecognized, instead treated as anonymous representations of entire cultures. ‘Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists’ explores the artistic achievements of Native women and establishes their rightful place in the art world.”

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

‘Idiot Strings, The Things We Carry,’ Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq Athabaskan), 2017, posted earlier: