Introducing…Logan Acton and Justin Greenlee! Logan and Justin joined the K-12 Education team one week ago today as the 2009-2010 McDermott Interns. Did you know the DMA annually offers eight curatorial and education internships? The Eugene McDermott Education Fund makes these highly competitive positions possible. McDermott Interns work full-time at the Museum for nine months helping to shape our exhibitions and programs, as well as share them with our visitors. We couldn’t survive without them!
Logan Acton (on the left) is the Graduate McDermott Intern for Teaching Programs. He is completing an MA in Aesthetic Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas and holds a BA in Art & Performance from UT Dallas as well. Logan has been a familiar face around the DMA as he participated in several semesters of a collaborative honors seminar held at the Museum and taught by DMA staff and UT Dallas faculty.
Justin Greenlee (on the right) is the McDermott Intern for Learning Partnerships with Schools and the Community. He graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in Art History and English. New to Texas, Justin spent a semester abroad at the Institute at the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence studying art history, and he has extensive experience as a tennis instructor at camps throughout the country.
As I mentioned above, Logan and Justin have only been roaming the Museum for one week. I put them on the spot somewhat when I asked them which collection areas they most looked forward to spending more time exploring. Justin said the Asian art is his pick. This will match well with a cluster of Asian Studies courses he took in college! Logan first said everything, then narrowed it down to the African galleries. He’s an artist who loves to sketch and the African works offer opportunities for line work and seeing space in new ways. Once they settle in a bit more, the interns will join the blog as regular voices sharing their experiences throughout the next nine months. Welcome Logan and Justin!
Nicole Stutzman
Director of Learning Partnerships with Schools and the Community
Sofia Penny Curatorial Intern in the Asian art department at the Dallas Museum of Art
Tanaka Y?, Tsutsumimono (“Wrapped Item”), 2022. Glazed stoneware, 24 3/8 x 18 1/2 x 19 in. Dallas Museum of Art, Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition Fund, Susan Mead Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund, and Discretionary Decorative Arts Fund. 2023.71.
New to the Dallas Museum of Art collection, Tsutsumimono (“Wrapped Item”) by Tanaka Y? carries a deep history of the art of Japanese wrapping and connects viewers to its contemporary traditions. This ceramic glazed stoneware, measuring 24 3/8 x 18 1/2 x 19 inches, commands attention through Tanaka’s bold use of color. The work exudes a tangible presence, enhanced by the interplay of color and size. It contrasts weights—where a seemingly concealed object anchors against the light, fluid, and malleable imitation of fabric. The idea of fabric is communicated through the undulating forms that appear to ripple, roll, and curve, falling into the object, all working to conceal its form and essence from the viewer. The consistency of the clay further emphasizes the textile-like quality in its uniformity and texture. The sculpture captivates its audience as they navigate the work, allowing their imaginations to grapple with and attempt to unravel its mysterious nature.
Building on this interplay of material and illusion, contemporary third-generation Japanese ceramic artist Tanaka Y? creates clay objects resembling vessels wrapped in the traditional wrapping cloth, furoshiki. Furoshiki is a single fabric used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods. Furoshiki enjoyed wide usage for over 1,200 years, continuing until the end of the Edo period (1615-1868 CE). The custom originates from the Nara period (710-784 CE), when it safeguarded the valuables of emperors. The oldest known wrapping cloth from the Nara period is preserved at the Shosoin, a wooden storage house at the Todaiji Temple in Nara. During the Heian period (794-1185 CE), furoshiki was used to wrap and carry clothes for the nobility. In the Muromachi period (1338-1573 CE), Shogun Ashikaga built a great steam bathhouse where noble guests used silk cloths with their family crests to keep their clothes separate while bathing. In the Edo period, public bathhouses (sento) became widespread, and furoshiki was used as a mat while undressing and as a wrapping cloth to carry clothes. The name furoshiki combines two words: “furo,” meaning “bath,” and “shiki,” meaning “to spread.” Before furoshiki became associated with public baths, people called it hirazutsumi, meaning “flat folded bundle.” Eventually, furoshiki became essential for merchants to transport their goods and served a functional role for the working class during the Edo period. Initially used to carry clothes, furoshiki evolved to wrap almost anything, symbolizing respect for others on gift-giving occasions and imbuing special meanings to the wrapping materials and the wrapped goods. Modern furoshiki are made from various materials, including silk, cotton, and synthetic fibers, with designs varying depending on their use. The most commonly used furoshiki are squares measuring 27 3/5 or 35 2/5 inches wide. While many people regard furoshikias unique to Japanese culture, similar traditions exist in other countries, such as Korea, where a patchwork wrapping cloth called bojagi has been utilized for centuries.
Furoshiki is a versatile medium for utility and personal expression and a sustainable alternative to plastic waste. After World War II, its usage declined with the rise of plastic shopping bags. However, with growing environmental awareness, furoshiki has regained popularity—compact when folded and reusable, furoshiki is an eco-friendly and convenient wrapping cloth. In 2006, Japanese Minister of the Environment Yuriko Koike introduced the Mottainai Furoshiki campaign, which loosely translates as “use a furoshiki to avoid waste,” to promote its use. Its adoption is believed to help reduce household waste from plastic bags.
The furoshiki can transform into whatever the user needs it to be. Just as the fabric can be wrapped and used in countless ways, Tanaka reflects the versatility by appearing to conceal the objects within this work, Tsutsumimono, even though the sculpture is empty inside. This deliberate concealment encourages viewers to use their imagination and speculate about what might lie hidden beneath the fabric. The artist elevates an everyday object often overlooked. Tanaka centralizes the furoshiki in her work, blurring the distinction between object and vessel. The furoshikielevates whatever it envelops, prompting consideration of its fabric and traditional significance as art in its own right. Examining the deliberate folds and Tanaka’s signature knot that sinks into the object draws one into a vision of the physical process of how the object was folded. If one knows how, almost anything can be wrapped in furoshiki, regardless of size or shape, with ingenuity and the proper folding technique. Each stage, from crafting the fabric to folding it over the object and transporting it to its destination, embodies elements of artistry and performance. With this work Tanaka brings attention to the often overlooked details. The furoshiki aligns perfectly with the Japanese cultural tradition of meticulously wrapping even the most seemingly insignificant objects, a practice that continues to thrive in Japan today.
While Tsutsumimono may appear slab-built, Tanaka coil-builds her forms using Shigaraki-blended clay. This method provides superior porosity and plasticity, granting her greater artistic freedom. Additionally, Shigaraki clay further infuses her work with historical depth. Shigaraki, one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns, is among the oldest pottery-producing regions in the country. Located at a crossroads for transportation between Nara, Yamashiro in the central Kinai region, and the Tokai region (Nagoya area), Shigaraki has continuously produced pottery from the 13th century to the present. Throughout its 800-year-old tradition, Shigaraki has primarily focused on creating utilitarian vessels. While the forms have evolved and glazes have become increasingly refined, most Shigaraki products share a common characteristic: they are large, sturdy containers meant for storage or other practical functions. Shigaraki clay underscores a continuity with the past, creating a dialogue between traditional and contemporary Japanese art. By incorporating this clay into her art, Tanaka creates an intersection of utility and beauty, compelling attention to everyday materials.
The artist’s choice to use turmeric yellow is steeped in historical significance. In Japan, people have traditionally used ukon-nuno (turmeric cloth) to wrap antique crafts because they believe turmeric repels worms and insects. Tanaka uses this same deep yellow hue to wrap her ceramic work, paying homage to the tradition. For surface treatment, Tanaka smooths the surfaces with a sponge and then applies a thin layer of clay slip using either a brush or airbrush. To achieve its distinctive deep yellow color, she applies two coats of pigment before the initial firing, repeating this process up to four times until reaching the desired hue.
She cleverly manipulates and folds her clay to imitate a textile, creating her representation of furoshiki. By doing so, she mimics the traditional process of wrapping a furoshiki around an object, blending clay sculpting techniques with the art of fabric folding. This approach combines two histories of techniques while paying homage to the cultural significance of furoshiki.
Tanaka’s works are celebrated both within Japan and internationally. They have been exhibited in several institutions and museums, garnering significant accolades for a relatively young artist in the Japanese ceramic industry. As a Kyoto Saga University of Arts student, where she earned a B.F.A. in ceramics,Tanaka initially studied oil painting but soon switched to ceramics because she enjoyed the physical demands of working with clay. She then went on to earn an M.F.A. in ceramics from Kyoto City University of Arts. Tanaka currently lives and works in Kyoto.
It is essential to recognize the broader context of the Japanese ceramic field, which has historically been dominated by men. Like many other arts and crafts in Japan, the ceramics field was often passed down through male lineage within families. Men typically held the prestigious positions of master ceramists and were the primary figures recognized for their contributions to the art form. However, the landscape has been changing, particularly since the mid-20th century. Women have increasingly entered the field, gaining recognition and acclaim for their work. Despite ongoing challenges related to gender roles and societal expectations, female ceramists have made significant contributions and continue pushing the medium’s boundaries. Notable contemporary female ceramists, such as Tanaka Y?, reflect this shift and women’s growing presence and influence in the Japanese ceramic art field.
Tsutsumimono not only honors the rich history and cultural significance of furoshiki but also reimagines it through the medium of clay. Tanaka’s innovative approach and artistic craftsmanship bridge traditional Japanese practices with contemporary art, inviting viewers to engage with the work on multiple levels. As environmental consciousness grows, the revival offuroshiki underscores the importance of sustainable practices, making Tanaka’s creations both a nod to the past and a beacon for the future. Tsutsumimono is currently on view in the Japan gallery on the Level 3. Visit the Dallas Museum of Art to experience this remarkable artwork for yourself!
Sean Earley (1953–1992) was born in New Orleans and raised in Hurst, Texas. After studying at the University of Texas at Arlington and exhibiting in Dallas at galleries such as 500X, he moved to New York to pursue painting, making a living as an illustrator on the side. Earley went on to attain a residency at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, Italy, and gallery representation at Bridgewater Gallery, rising to relative success in his budding career through numerous group and solo shows. However, these professional achievements were followed by an HIV and consequential AIDS diagnosis, pushing Earley to amass his legacy through painting for the remainder of his life. He moved back to Texas in his final years to be near family and fell in love with his home state, creating artwork that focused on Texas iconography and narratives. Being a queer artist himself, Earley also assisted in the DMA’s first Day Without Art, a nationwide day of mourning and activism for the AIDS crisis in 1989. He died three years later, in June 1992, due to complications from AIDS.
Earley’s work employs a distinctly medieval sense of depth and composition, stacking people against one another as their elongated, flat bodies and dreary faces set an uneasy pace. The medieval inspiration furthers the stagnant dread of his subjects in both historical associations and scenery. Intentionally combining postmodern ideation with an ever-present archaic angst, Earley’s subjects embody modern mundanity and other timeliness simultaneously.
The Rapture reflects Earley’s deep sense of unnerving detail as people ascend into the heavens from tasks left unattended at particularly inconvenient times. Scenes such as people mid-drive in downtown Dallas alongside a dog being dragged up by its leash from its owner’s enrapturement mix discomfort into closure. The consequences of the rapture, a Christian end-time belief in which God will raise his believers into heaven, are as uniquely curious as they are unsettling.As someone who spent the majority of his life during the Cold War, Earley developed a fascination with the motionless angst of the time and the looming threat of nuclear war during an otherwise calm postwar American dream. Earley found what he called a “distant kinship” with medieval art, which was made by men caught in a similar perpetual fear, even if for different reasons. This is profoundly evident in The Rapture as Dallas residents move upward in the final moments of Earth, leaving behind their mortal lives in a vibrant yet devastating display.
Situated in downtown Dallas’s converging highways, these enraptured Dallas residents above Dealey Plaza underscore an infamous part of the city’s history: the JFK assassination. Earley parallels the shock and fear of this historical event with the angst-ridden mundanity of postwar American life that was so prevalent for the Baby Boomer generation. The angst, melded into departures and closures, endings and beginnings, is met in equal part by Sean Earley’s uncanny sense of humor and playfulness. A vibrant, orderly Dallas is pulled at by its threads with a certain absurdity—as seen in a woman crashing through the ceiling of a building, the petrified and expressionless ascension of each person, and even the vibrant retrofuturistic cars—preluding a future not too far from the painting’s creation in 1982. Earley depicts the everyday fears of American life—and Dallas life, in particular—in a melting pot of emotions from all corners of suburbia using an unseen higher hand, and, to some extent, he plays God as he whisks his subjects upward across the wooden panel.
Julia Garrett is the 2023–2024 McDermott Intern for Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Objects of Pleasure is the type of artwork that immediately commands the viewer’s attention. Each large-scale panel reflects an almost mirror image of the other, represented in completely different textures and materials, and invites the viewer to observe the work from up close and pay closer attention to the objects displayed on the painted shelves.
Objects of Pleasure emerged from an informal conversation between two artist friends—or “sisters” as they call each other—Gala Porras-Kim and Young Joon Kwak, when they asked themselves, “what would pleasure look like for my sister?” Intrinsically tied to their friendship and sisterhood, the artists painted their respective panels of this remarkable diptych as a gift to one another, saying that the most exciting aspect of the artistic process was collaborating for the first time. “I don’t think these works can exist individually,” said Porras-Kim, speaking of how the panels only make sense when they are next to each other. “When I look at [my] panel alone, I don’t recognize it as mine.” Although Kwak’s artistic practice is grounded in collaboration, this artwork is Porras-Kim’s first-ever collaborative work; however, she says this new endeavor felt less daunting because she was able to share the artistic process with Kwak. The artists continually express their excitement about the opportunity to work with each other, above all else, and how each panel reflects their longtime friendship and individual character. “The end result is very representative of our personalities,” they say.
As a recent acquisition by the DMA’s Postwar and Contemporary Art Department, this work may also become a conversation-starter among visitors, with the left panel depicting historical sex objects, while the right panel portrays the silhouettes of their contemporary counterparts. Objects of Pleasure homages and simultaneously queers traditions of decorative display, from the 17th- to 18th-century European kunstkammer of sensuous surfaces, to the 18th- to early 20th-century Korean screen painting genre chaekgeori, which presents scholarly or refined objects on similarly elaborately constructed bookshelves.In the left panel, Porras-Kim carefully captures every detail of sex objects from all over the world, sourced from various internet websites, and then flattens them into a two-dimensional cabinet of curiosities. In the right panel, Kwak responds to and queers Porras-Kim’s drawing by rendering the modern versions of these historical sex objects in iridescent silhouettes against a pink textured background. Her formal abstraction of the objects and use of glitter as a reflective, shifting “queer material,” as she describes it, deliberately plays with viewers’ assumptions, and asks them to first engage with the work from an aesthetic perspective before allowing for a more inclusive and open-ended dialogue between the work and viewer.
Rather than immediately alienating the viewer, Kwak wanted the viewer to have a delayed response to the painting. When developing their panel, the artist entertained the humorous and subversive idea of “luring in [viewers] with the pink glitter,” including those who might typically run away from a work with such an overtly sexual theme, and then slowly having the viewer realize they are encountering sex objects. Instead of instantly recognizing the sexually “taboo” subject matter and averting their gaze, viewers are compelled to approach the work more closely before assigning judgment. “Ultimately, I want to make people become better viewers,” Kwak says.
Gala Porras-Kim (born 1984, Bogota, Colombia) is an LA-based Korean-Colombian artist whose most notable work to date, her Index series, explores how cultural artifacts become recontextualized, classified, and acquire meaning within art museums and institutions.
Young Joon Kwak (born 1984, Queens, New York) is an LA-based multidisciplinary artist and educator and trans Korean-American whose work spans sculpture, performance, music, video, and community-based collaborations to establish new forms and spaces for the LGBTQ+ community.
Andrea Dávila is the 2022–2023 McDermott Intern for Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Artists Casey Koyczan and Eric Wagliardo each learned about rock art as many of us do—as a child or young adult in school, or out of an abundance of curiosity about the past, archaeology, or ancient art. But Koyczan, a Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, Canada, says, “[I]t wasn’t until adulthood that I was able to experience them in person and fully realize their importance and spiritual meaning.” Also called petroglyphs (etched or pecked images) or pictographs (painted images), rock art has been created for thousands of years by people around the globe, from Australia to South Africa to Europe. Take, for example, the famous cave paintings at Lascaux and Chauvet, France, which include stunning depictions of horses, mammoths, bulls, and handprints. These are approximately 22,000 and 36,000 years old, respectively. Globally, the representations of humans, living and extinct animals, mythical beings, and abstract images portrayed in rock art can be an important part of the spiritual inheritance and identities of contemporary Indigenous peoples.
Across North America, notable rock art sites were produced by ancestral Indigenous inhabitants at locations like Jeffers Petroglyphs in Minnesota (8,000 images in one place!); Newspaper Rock, Canyonlands National Park, Utah; and Petroglyphs Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, Canada. However, while researching this project, Texas-based artist Wagliardo was surprised to learn that petroglyphs and pictographs exist right here in Texas—a fact that might astonish many Texans. Pictographs at Hueco Tanks State Park east of El Paso and Seminole Canyon State Park near Comstock are among the most well known sites in the Lone Star State.
Overlaid digital rendering on an image of the 4,000-year-old White Shaman Mural in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas, thanks to Jessica Lee Hamlin, Executive Director of Shumla, and her colleagues. Credit: Courtesy Jessica Lee Hamlin. Close up of a petroglyph at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site near El Paso, Texas. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith [LC-DIG-highsm-27441].
Ha Ilè (pronounced ha-ee-lay) is an augmented reality (AR) rock art installation created by Koyczan and Wagliardo. AR allows semi-realistic experiences of an object or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way. By scanning a QR code, DMA visitors can take part in a unique Ha Ilè experience at two building entrances—pictographs on rock at the Ross Avenue entrance, and a charismatic hummingbird at the entrance adjacent to Klyde Warren Park. Ha Ilè can also be experienced at other locations, including the AT&T Discovery District.
Ellie Canning, McDermott Intern for Latin American Art, interacts with Ha Ilè Onyx at the DMA’s Ross Avenue Entrance.
Representing one of the world’s oldest art forms using cutting-edge technology is an innovative approach—Koyczan and Wagliardo generated the rock forms through 3D scanning and produced the pictographs through artificial intelligence (AI) to portray rock art from North America and across the world; and, finally, the hummingbird is a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image. Hummingbird motifs have been depicted throughout time across the Americas; Koyczan and Wagliardo discovered while working on Ha Ilè that they both cherish the beautiful and sometimes fierce migratory bird.
Larger than life, the Ha Ilè hummingbird hovers near Curatorial Assistant Alicia Sandoval.
Ha Ilè means future and past tense in the Dene language. Koyczan proposes that this work has the potential to exist for as long as the petroglyphs and pictographs that inspired it, and he feels “it relates heavily to Indigenous Futurisms and how humanity will view and experience artwork in the future.” Indigenous Futurisms is defined as a movement consisting of art, literature, and other media that express Indigenous perspectives of the future, past, and present, typically in the context of science fiction. Expressing a similar sentiment, Wagliardo is hopeful that “these pieces help people reconnect with the past and imagine an optimistic future where we as a society connect in a deeper, more meaningful way.”
Individuals pictured (left to right): Eric Wagliardo, artist (USA) Casey Koyczan, artist (Canada), and Noëlla De Maina, Consul, Consulate General of Canada in Dallas at the Ha Ilè Launch Reception in honor of Native American Heritage Month in the AT&T Discovery District Media Lobby. Photo by Albert Y. from Ellum Studios. Courtesy of the Consulate General of Canada in Dallas, TX.
GIF of Ha Ilè augmented reality hummingbird sculpture by Eric Wagliardo and Casey Koyczan inspired by Indigenous pictographs and petroglyphs from the Pecos River Valley.
Ha Ile is courtesy of the Government of Canada; the Consulate General of Canada, Dallas; the City of Dallas, Office of Arts and Culture; and the Dallas Museum of Art. The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.
Dr. Michelle Rich is The Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Assistant Curator of Indigenous American Art at the DMA.
Pictured Left to Right: Artist Rashid Johnson; Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art; Dr. Agustín Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director
Rashid Johnson, this year’s TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art 2022 honoree and renowned multidisciplinary artist, gifted the DMA with his multimedia work, The New Black Yoga Installation. Featuring five men performing an enigmatic dance of ballet, yoga, tai chi and martial arts across a sun-soaked beach, the work explores the complexity of personal and cultural identity. Johnson’s ongoing meditations on black masculinity and mysticism are reflected through their choreographed dance movements. Rugs branded with crosshairs, a symbol that is etched into the sand in the video, are situated throughout the gallery, projecting the film’s combined sense of peace and foreboding into physical space.
Below is an excerpt from a transcript of a conversation between Rashid Johnson and the DMA’s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, at The Warehouse in Dallas, Texas. This dialogue has been edited for length and clarity.
Katherine:
When I saw you yesterday at the Museum, you were saying it’s been probably eight or nine years since you’ve really interacted with the piece and seen it in person. I’m so happy to have this work on view and to discuss it with you for the first time because it’s a very layered and enigmatic work. Perhaps you could speak a little bit on how this work came about in your practice.
Rashid:
This film, The New Black Yoga, was born of a time when I was living with my wife, Sheree, in Berlin. And it was the first time I was living internationally. I was working on an exhibition and doing a residency. But, as anyone who’s familiar with my work knows about me, I’m an anxious person. And I was asking myself, how do I start to deal with this anxiety? My doctor said I should go do yoga. Since I was in Germany, all the yoga classes were in German. Apparently, that’s just how it works, right? [Laughs] I thought I would just follow what the other people did.
And, apparently, that’s just not how a real yoga practice is formed [laughs]. And so, because of that my sense is to do something absurd and continue to follow a path. I found a male performer and made a film, and I called it Black Yoga. Now, this man knew nothing about yoga—I, too, knew nothing about yoga [laughs]—but he was interested in ballet. I had an 8mm camera and I said, “Let’s do it, let’s make up black yoga.” I just started giving him moves to do and we made this film called Black Yoga. And by expanding on that was born this film, which is executed using five characters called The New Black Yoga and shot on 16mm film.
It’s this fun way to kind of revisit this idea of healing, or the creation of healing, using your own creative sensibility to invent a way to navigate complicated circumstances. And that’s how this film was born. That’s its origin story.
Katherine:
Thank you for that. I want to talk a little bit about the healing aspect of the piece. The installation that we have at the DMA has a series of branded rugs on the floor. Then you look at the film—it is a very serene film of beautiful movement on a beautiful beach at dusk—and there also appears to be crosshairs that are written into the sand. Then you notice that there are enigmatic runes that give a sense of mysticism but also of foreboding because it does appear that there are these crosshairs in the rugs. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about the kind of symbolism that you’re dealing with.
Rashid:
You know, throughout my practice I’ve built an iconography, or a series of symbols and signs, that reference either personal or collective experience—for example, the rugs through branding, but also on the beach, a kind of simple technique of drawing in the sand. And one that you mentioned, Katherine, is the crosshairs.
I’m a child of the eighties. The day before yesterday, I went to see a play by an incredible playwright and screenwriter named Susan Laurie Parks—she happened to also write the script for a film that I made. But I was sitting behind Spike Lee. I love Spike Lee. I’m just a huge, huge fan of Spike Lee.
I have to say that, early on, I was quite obsessed with his films. One of his early films is a film many of you have probably seen called Do the Right Thing. I was quite young when it came out. But, there’s a song in it by a band called Public Enemy, and the song is called Fight the Power. I fell in love with Public Enemy. I thought that they were so brilliant. It was this radical discourse but it was also urban music and it was philosophy. Chuck D, who was the lead singer for the band, was this activist and this really brilliant character. On the cover of their albums, they often had this kind of crosshair—a gun sight. I remember asking myself over the course of looking at that album, listening to the music, and seeing how they employed the symbol—who was that sight for? Was the gun being pointed at them? Were they in the crosshairs or were they projecting the crosshairs onto whoever they were battling against? I’ve borrowed this symbol a lot in my work through branding.
Of course, Katherine, you mentioned there’s several rugs that lay on the floor. Well, my wife is Iranian and I always joke that my mother-in-law and I don’t have a ton in common. But she likes Persian rugs and I like Persian rugs. So I started using these things in my work—almost as a way of reflecting on this relationship that I was building with her, and these cultural signifiers and the possibility that cultural encampment, instincts, and signifiers can become global and employed in different ways and borrowed, sanctioned, and given agency in different languages. So I coated the floor in these Persian rugs and then I branded them with different symbols. I’m excited about how they become both legible and potentially mysterious, simultaneously.
Focus On: Rashid Johnson
The Dallas Museum of Art invites visitors to step into the artwork of renowned multidisciplinary artist Rashid Johnson in Focus On: Rashid Johnson, an installation showcasing Johnson’s multimedia work The New Black Yoga Installation. Gifted to the DMA by the artist in 2022, this installation combines a video projection and branded Persian rugs to create an experience that is, at once, intense and intimate. The film features five men performing an enigmatic dance of ballet, yoga, tai chi, and martial arts across a sun-soaked beach, exploring the complexity of personal and cultural identity. Their choreographed movements reflect Johnson’s ongoing meditations on Black masculinity and mysticism, as well as his investigations of the body in space. Rugs branded with crosshairs, a symbol that is etched into the sand in the video, are situated throughout the gallery, projecting the film’s combined sense of peace and foreboding into physical space.
About Rashid Johnson
Rashid Johnson’s practice encompasses a wide range of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, filmmaking, and installation. Via a rich visual lexicon of coded symbolism and autobiographical materials, Johnson’s artwork conducts searing meditations on race and class, in addition to examining individual and shared cultural identities. The artist, who was born in Chicago in 1977, is perhaps best known for translating cultural experiences, most commonly that of Black Americans, through his unique visual language. Johnson was recognized as the 2022 honoree for his contributions to contemporary art at the 2022 TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Gala and Auction, a charity auction that benefits both the DMA and amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.
Edited by Trey Burns, Multimedia Producer, and Ellee McMeans, Communications Manager
The Guna people live in an autonomous region of coastal Panama. The mola—a blouse with appliqué panels on the front and back—is one of the most recognizable Guna art forms. Guna women devote hours daily to making molas together while they converse about their craft. This social context of production reinforces a shared set of aesthetic principles, including symmetry, contrast, and evenly distributed detail.[1] Well-made molas are admired and copied by others.
This brightly colored mola features birdlike figures rowing boats. Velvety sleeves and rick-rack trim elevate the sumptuous detail of the appliqué panels. There are many ways—cultural, historical, and economic—to approach these intricate works. For now, let’s look closer at this mola to understand its key aesthetic attributes.
Two Birds Mola Blouse 1953-1975 Guna people Dallas Museum of Art, The Isaac V. and Alicia C. Perez Mola Collection, gift of The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation, 2020.47.52
Symmetry: Imagine drawing a line from the center of one side of either panel straight across to the other side. The top half and the bottom half of the panel would mirror each other—with minor variations on either side. You would discover the same effect if you drew a line down the center of the blouse. This mola is symmetrical in quarters.
Duality: This blouse features near identical panels on the front and back. Guna women often make molas in pairs. This practice, along with the symmetry that governs individual panels, relates to the Guna belief that every living being has a double.[2] However, Guna women are not wedded to cosmology. They are artists who explore aesthetic convention and respond to market conditions. Women sometimes tear apart blouses to sell individual molas, thus interrupting the ability of their objects to reflect the cultural value of duality.
Stitches: Small, evenly spaced concealed stitches are also a hallmark of prized molas. While some stitches are visible in a close-up of this blouse, they are light in color, small, and evenly spaced and do not detract from the quality of the mola.
Contrast: Pay attention to the range of colors in this detail. Notice the red shapes over an area of blue and an area of green. Layers of bright contrasting colors articulate the shapes of this mola.
Filler motif: Guna women aim to create molas with little empty space. This technique leads to a cohesive composition while highlighting technical expertise. Guna artists have developed varieties of “filler motif”—small, simple repeated shapes—to cover spaces between main compositional elements. Filler motifs can be made from small circles, triangles, or, as we see here, slits called tas-tas.[3] The slits extend over the boats and figures to create an especially cohesive composition.
It can be tempting to interpret unattributed Indigenous art as a direct transmission of a unique—often exoticized— culture. While a cultural framework is key to interpreting Guna art forms, close looking reveals how women’s aesthetic choices also inform the production of molas.
[1] Mari Lyn Salvador and Vernon Salvador, Yer dailege! Kuna women’s art. (Albuquerque, NM: Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 1978)
[2] Michel Perrin and Deke Dusinberre. Magnificent Molas: the Art of the Kuna Indians (Paris: Flammarion, 1999), 45.
[3] Diana Marks, Molas Dress, Identity, Culture ( Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2016)
Madeleine Aquilina, Michigan Summer Intern for Latin American Art, PhD Candidate in History of Art at University of Michigan
For over a thousand years, Caddo peoples lived, traded goods, made art, and grew crops in communities clustered around rivers in present-day Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. They, like other Mississippian peoples, constructed earthen mounds that marked and shaped their landscape for political and ceremonial purposes. You can visit and learn more about three of those mounds at the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site in East Texas.
Colonization and colonialism dealt blow after blow to the Caddo, with epidemic diseases, forced removals to reservations, and the boarding school system all threatening the continuation of knowledge within Caddo communities. Many traditions survived through the concerted efforts of Caddo knowledge keepers, and others, though disrupted, have now been revived and revitalized through the work of contemporary artists and other cultural practitioners.
Among those artists are brothers Chad “Nish” Earles and Chase Kahwinhut Earles and their father, Wayne “Tay Sha” Earles, all of whom have artworks featured in Spirit Lodge: Mississippian Art from Spiro(on view through August 7, 2022).
Tah-nah-hah “Buffalo,” Chad “Nish” Earles, Caddo, 2018. Acrylic on maple skateboard deck
Academic and professional experience in art and graphic design, a background in graffiti art, and deep engagement with Caddo history and traditions have all shaped Chad’s art. These varied influences are visible in his piece in Spirit Lodge, Tah-Nah-Hah “Buffalo,” a hand-painted skateboard deck featuring his characteristic bold lines and creative use of negative space.
Horse tripod vessel (Deé-Tumbah Kah’-Wis), Chase Kahwinhut Earles, Caddo, 2015. Ceramic. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 2018.12
Chase’s Batah Kuhuh alligator gar fish effigy bottle, acquired by the DMA in 2020, welcomes visitors into the exhibition. After its acquisition, Chase and Dr. Michelle Rich, the DMA’s Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Assistant Curator of the Arts of the Americas, had a conversation about his ceramic practice, which can be found here.
When you enter Spirit Lodge’s galleries, you’ll find not one, not two, but three additional works by Chase—two more of his ceramic vessels and one collaboration with Muscogee painter Starr Hardridge. The intricately incised designs on many of Chase’s pieces, as seen on Deé-Tumbah Kah’-Wis above, reflect his own spin on motifs used by pre-contact Caddo potters. Jeri Redcorn, the Caddo pottery revivalist, helped him start working in uniquely Caddo styles.
Inspiration isn’t only flowing from the older generations to the younger though—while Wayne had loved art since he was a child, his interest in stone carving was sparked by going to art shows with his sons (and some encouragement from Chase and Chad!). The stunning ceremonial weaponry featured in the exhibition is a testament to his rapid mastery of the art form. And there’s an extra layer of family connections—Wayne’s ceremonial mace shares a title with Chad’s skateboard deck, and his monolithic axe—like Chase’s effigy bottle—is in the shape of a gar fish.
Left: Ceremonial mace (Tah’-nah-ha—Buffalo), Wayne “Tay Sha” Earles, Caddo, 2018. Stone. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 2019.34.1 Right: Monolithic axe (P-i-ta-u-ni-wan’-ha—To Have Power), Wayne “Tay Sha” Earles, Caddo, 2018. Stone. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 2019.34.2
Join us for the Late Night event on March 25 to see Chad along with the Caddo Culture Club exhibiting traditional Caddo dances, Chase demonstrating his potting, and many other artists and knowledge keepers sharing their expertise. And of course, come experience the Earles family’s incredible art in person in Spirit Lodge: Mississippian Art from Spiro!
Becca Merriman-Goldring is the McDermott Intern for Arts of the Americas at the DMA.
Love is in the air—and in the art at the DMA! Take a look below to see our staff picks of art that we heART in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Wedding vase with butterflies, Mary Louise Eteeyan, Jemez Pueblo,1975–2000. Ceramic. Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Robert I. Kramer, 2014.43.18.
Becca Merriman-Goldring, McDermott Intern for Arts of the Americas Each spout of a Pueblo wedding vase represents one spouse; the two are joined by a bridged handle to form a continuous whole. Mary Louise Eteeyan emphasizes that significance in the decoration of this vase, with two butterflies coming together over a single basket of corn.
Wedding ring, department of San Marcos, San Pedro Sacatepequez, Guatemala, Maya — Mam, probably 1930s or 1940s. Dallas Museum of Art, the Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Collection of Maya Textiles from Guatemala, gift of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher, 1983.524.
Dr. Mark A. Castro, The Jorge Baldor Curator of Latin American Art There are several wedding rings, like this one, in the Museum’s collection of Maya textiles from Guatemala. We don’t know if they were ever used, but perhaps they might bring you good luck if you’re popping the big question this Valentine’s Day!
John White Alexander, Miss Dorothy Quincy Roosevelt (later Mrs. Langdon Geer), 1901–1902. Oil on canvas. Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Pauline Allen Gill Foundation in memory of Pauline Gill Sullivan, 2007.36.
Martha MacLeod, Senior Curatorial Administrator and Curatorial Assistant for American Art John White Alexander painted Dorothy’s portrait shortly before she married Langdon Greer. It was possibly a gift for her soon-to-be husband. The composition includes her beloved Irish Setter, Shamrock. Artists often include dogs in paintings to symbolize fidelity and devotion.
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Grandma Ruby’s Refrigerator, 2007. Gelatin silver print. Dallas Museum of Art, Lay Family Acquisition Fund, 2018.37.
Hilde Nelson, Curatorial Assistant for Contemporary Art In her series The Notion of Family, Frazier centers three generations of women—herself, her mother, and her grandmother. Here, the artist honors her grandmother; the fridge covered with the proud matriarch’s family memorabilia conveys their loving bond.
January always marks a new year and new possibilities, and at this time almost 40 years ago, the DMA and the citizens of Dallas were looking forward to a brand-new museum and watching it grow from the ground up.
The site for the new museum, chosen in 1977, was in area north of the Central Business District, where it would serve as the anchor of a new Arts District for the city. This location had once been home to grand mansions facing Ross Avenue at the turn of the 20th century, but by the 1930s and 1940s the area was dominated by car dealerships, tire and auto repair shops, and small machine shops.
The design for the new museum building by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes was created in 1979. Barnes’s plan included a central concourse to connect museum functions, terraced galleries with internal courtyards and skylights for natural light, vaulted space for contemporary art, a sculpture garden, and a quiet continuous background that lets the artworks shine.
Edward Larrabee Barnes’s original design for the new Dallas Museum of Art, March 1979. The layout stayed generally the same, but the concourse became straight instead of stepped.
The site chosen was not empty land, and the structures were still mainly automotive related, especially on the Ross and Harwood sides.
Northwest corner of Ross and Harwood, the current location of the DMA, looking north along Harwood Street with Ross Avenue in the foreground.
The demolition of the existing structures began in September 1980, but in keeping with the January theme, the following image is from January 29, 1981.
J.W. Bateson Construction, Paula Lawrence photographer; DMA Archives, New Museum Demolition and Construction Progress Photographs
Construction in January 1982:
J.W. Bateson Construction, Photos by Mel Armand Assoc; DMA Archives, New Museum Demolition and Construction Progress Photographs
This above photo is the back of the Museum and Barrel Vault from St. Paul Street, looking southeast. The First United Methodist Church of Dallas can be seen in the background.
And circa January 1983—there weren’t process photos from January, so the interior view is from December 1982, and the aerial view is from February 1983:
J.W. Bateson Construction, photos by L.M. Dale; DMA Archives, New Museum Demolition and Construction Progress Photographs
This staircase is in the center of the concourse; the first doorway on the left goes to Museum offices; the second doorway in the top center of the image leads to what is now the Arts of the Pacific on Level 3. The windows in the background are where the Hamon building now stands.
J.W. Bateson Construction, photos by L.M. Dale; DMA Archives, New Museum Demolition and Construction Progress Photographs
In this aerial view, the Sculpture Garden is still under construction on the left side of the image, and construction on the Reves and Decorative Arts galleries has not yet begun. And if you look really closely, you can see Woodall Rodgers Freeway in the top center, which was still a few months away from completion.
North façade—This side was covered by the Hamon Building in 1993; but the stone-carved “Dallas Museum of Art” can still be seen on the 4th Floor, at the top of the stairs from the Concourse.
South entrance on Ross Plaza
Ceremonial Entrance at Harwood and Flora streets
I am looking forward to what the coming year and the future brings for the DMA.
