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Home>National Gallery of Art Communications Office>Acquisitions Announcements>Acquisitions: 2023>Acquisition: Sculpture by Marie Watt

March 06, 2023

# Acquisition: Sculpture by Marie Watt

Marie Watt*Antipodes*, 2020vintage Italian beads, industrial felt, and threadoverall: 162.56 cm (64 in.)National Gallery of Art, WashingtonGift of Funds from Sharon Percy Rockefeller and Senator John Davison Rockefeller IV2022.32.1Image courtesy of the artist, Photograph by Kevin McConnell

**Acquisitions Press Release**

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**Press Contact**Laurie Tylecphone: (202) 842-6355e-mail: [email protected]

The National Gallery of Art has acquired *Antipodes* (2020), a two-part beaded work by Marie Watt (Seneca Nation of Indians/European descent, b. 1967). The sculpture addresses the temporal, material, linguistic, and spatial constructs of distance in Indigenous culture. In her artistic practice, which draws from Native histories, knowledge, biography, and belief systems, Watt investigates past, present, and future in community to better connect to place and to one another. *Antipodes* calls on the history and role of trading beads exchanged by Indigenous peoples and European settler colonists to examine ideas of cultural exchange. The work’s stepped design, made of pre-1920s Venetian glass beads that were sewn by hand to two felt backings, alludes to geometric patterns featured in traditional Native American cultural objects. It also suggests the step-back architecture used in 20th-century buildings to increase the natural light and public space that would otherwise be obscured by monolithic skyscrapers. Watt incorporates a word on each of the two beaded wall hangings. “Skywalker,” on the upper left element, honors the Khanawake Mohawk ironworkers who labored at great heights to build New York City’s bridges and skyscrapers in the late 19th and early 20th century. It also refers to the character Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars movie franchise, bringing the work into the contemporary realm. “Skyscraper,” on the lower right element, refers to the towering structure in the Native ironworkers’ story and the means of their separation from the ground, which brought them to celestial and legendary heights.

# Contact Information

**General Information**For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:Department of CommunicationsNational Gallery of Art2000 South Club DriveLandover, MD 20785phone: (202) 842-6353e-mail: [email protected]

**Chief of Communications**Anabeth Guthriephone: (202) 842-6804e-mail: [email protected]

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