Native American artists will often innately share their cultural stories through their chosen medium, and for Diné potter Jared Tso, it’s no different. In his new show, titled History Became Legend. Legend Became Myth, hosted at King Galleries in Santa Fe, Tso departs from his typical vessels to focus on bigger and bolder themes. The artist features around seven clay helmets inspired by the Lord of the Rings series and “as a means to tell the story of the Navajo (Diné) people…,” says gallery owner Charles King.
The Rescuer, native clay and native fired
Tso notes that for anyone that knows him well, will notice that the show is an expansion of works that he produced in childhood. “After seeing the Peter Jackson adaptations of the Lord of the Rings in 2001, I was obsessed as a child,” he shares. “I would attempt to make what I saw out of any material I could get my hands on. Early on I found a deep love for the world of Middle Earth and it’s always been a source of inspiration for me.”
Using this popular series as a vehicle, Tso tackles profound topics that appear to parallel with the Native American experience. “This will be the first time that I showcase this love in my clay works and highlight themes and narratives both in the War of the Ring and our own history in the United States,” he says. “The idea of Manifest Destiny is not only political, but also an idea physically depicted in art. Western landscape paintings or sculpture became a visual embodiment of the stereotypes of the period, with the Native American often depicted as the hostile in contrast to the settlers…Of course, this expansion came at the cost of the erasure of Native cultures and destruction of millions of Native lives.”
Thirteen Stripes, native clay and native fired
The hostility mentioned above is addressed in show piece The Rescuer, and is in response to a sculpture that was in front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., from 1853 to 1958. “It depicts a frontiersman rescuing a woman and child from a Native person,” Tso explains. “The problem with this sculpture is that it depicts the Native person as hostile, rather than someone defending their home. The woman and child are there so that the viewer can empathize easier with the settler force. Native women and children are omitted from the scene.”
These Colors Don’t Run, native micaceous clay and native fired
The helmet titled Thirteen Stripes speaks to the America’s westward expansion and Manifest Destiny. “In his books, Tolkien depicts a similar movement of east to west,” Tso says. “To me…the War of the Ring reads like a post-apocalyptic story. Cities like Gondor or the World of the Elves are all diminished by the expansion of ‘evil.’ They become a fraction of their previous glory. For us Native Americans living today, we have already gone through our apocalypse and survived. We are still here and ready to face what is to come.”
Tso continues, “[Thirteen Stripes] is in reference to the original Thirteen Colonies. The expansion of America bore this theme on their banners as it moved west. It was very much a banner of war. This [piece] is inspired by a Uruk-hai captain helmet.”
Dine Ana-I, native clay and native fired
The helmets will be on display at King Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from December 2 through 23, with a reception from 1 to 3 p.m. on the opening day.
King Galleries
December 2-23, 2023
130 Lincoln Avenue, Suite D, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(480) 440-3912, www.kinggalleries.com
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