One and Both: Interconnectedness and Duality in Jason Wesaw’s “Water Carries Memory”

Alena Haney

Jason Wesaw is a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi (Turtle Clan) and is a multidisciplinary artist who works in ceramics, photography, painting, textiles, drum-making, and music.^[1] With all the various art forms that Wesaw practices and often mixes in his work, he calls himself a lifelong “maker” and attributes much of the inspiration for his artworks to his upbringing in Potawatomi culture.^[2] While Potawatomi people live all over the United States, due to treaty exemptions, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi stayed on their homelands, the southern portion of Lake Michigan. Themes of human-land interconnectedness frequently appear in Wesaw’s work as he aims to create pieces which affirm his tribal identity and create a sense of connection and calmness.^[3] Importantly, Wesaw uses a variety of materials and techniques, which further serves his goal of highlighting Potawatomi culture and identity as ever-evolving and growing with its people.^[4]

Wesaw’s piece, “Water Carries Memory” testifies to his multidisciplinary talents incorporating textiles, painting, ceramics, and natural materials such as cowrie shells and sand from Lake Michigan to create an elaborate display. Just as the interconnected materials create the image of the lakeshore, “Water Carries Memory” also encourages reflection upon the interconnectedness of water on Earth. Rivers, lakes, clouds, rain, and the water inside our bodies are all highly interconnected. By taking a moment to engage with Wesaw’s piece, viewers are prompted to consider their relationships to land and water. Additionally, the various materials not only create the sense that a viewer is sitting on the shores of the lake and taking a peaceful, reflective moment, but many of the materials contain specific relevance to Indigenous cultures and practices.

One of the most immediately eye-catching parts of “Water Carries Memory” is undoubtably the bold array of colorful ribbons gently flowing downwards. The movement from the air vents and people walking through the space makes the ribbons sway slightly and creates a lulling, meditative feeling reminiscent of watching the waves crash on the shore of the lake over and over. The gentle motion of the ribbons also prompts reflection on the title “Water Carries Memory” and the ways that water is in constant motion, carrying memories and physical particles and occasionally cycling back to where it came from only to move on once more. Additionally, the colorful blue ribbons are reminiscent of those which might be found on ribbon skirts and ribbon shirts often worn by Indigenous people.^[5] Ribbon skirts developed through the sewing of multiple different textiles and ribbons traded between Europeans and other Indigenous groups, and while the particular meaning of the garment may change depending on the wearer, ribbon skirts and ribbon shirts are seen as a symbol of Native identity, resilience, and cultural affirmation.^[6] Additionally, interspersed in three sections are slightly more translucent ribbons. These ribbons allow the viewer to look through to the canvases hanging on the wall and suggest the translucency of the lake water. When one walks to the side of the artwork and looks at the shadows on the wall produced by the translucent ribbons, the light is filtered by the colorful pieces of fabric and produces the effect of looking at light streaming through water. In this way the ribbons evoke both the feeling of looking at the lake and the feeling of being in the water of the lake.

 The downward motion of the ribbons then directs the eyes to the sand at the base of the piece. The sand itself came from the shores of Lake Michigan and provides a physical reminder of the space outside of the Block Museum walls. Like the movement in the ribbons, the ripples in the sand too suggest the motion of water and are reminiscent of the marks left on sand as waves repeatedly hit the shore and retreat. The sand itself also elicits the temporal process through which sand is created, as rock is broken down over time, further emphasizing the temporality and the active movement of water.

Also sitting upon the sand are three ceramic vessels with a metallic shape glazed on the front. Once again, the interconnectedness of the materials which Wesaw uses comes into play as clay is made up of water and sediments being broken down over time as well. Additionally, the ceramic vessels are man-made objects which requires relationship to the land and implicates Wesaw’s own connection to the lakeshore on a personal level as well as on a cultural level as Potawatomi communities have been making ceramics for centuries. Further, the mirrored surface of the pots reflects the viewers’ own feet at times placing us in relation to the piece and prompting consideration of our own relationship to the land and the lakeshore. Inside the ceramic vases are tobacco ties, barely visible to the viewer. Like the ribbons in the piece, the tobacco ties also have strong roots in Indigenous culture and practice.^[7] Tobacco may be placed in a bit of fabric, the tobacco tie, to carry a prayer or intention or to be left on land or water as a sign of respect.^[8] While they are not a focal point of the artwork and they require a craning of the neck to see, the tobacco ties represent another way that Wesaw’s own connection to and respect for the lakeshore come into play in the art piece and invite other viewers to consider their own positionality with the lake.

Finally, looking beyond the translucent ribbons lie three canvases dyed and painted with cowrie shells lining the middle. On a deep blue backdrop a white triangular form seems to pave a path for the cowrie shells to follow down the canvas. As with most of the elements throughout Wesaw’s work, the canvases and shells contain a double purpose. On an immediate level, the shells on the canvases evoke the shells under the water as they are slightly visible through the translucent ribbons. On another level, the cowrie shells evoke an Anishinaabe migration story.^[9] According to oral tradition, Anishinaabe people living by the Atlantic Ocean were suffering from illness and death, and a cowrie shell emerged from the sea with a prophecy that the people needed to move West to keep their traditions alive.^[10] As the story goes, the cowrie shell led the Anishinaabe people to the Great Lakes region by reflecting the rays of the sun.^[11] In Wesaw’s piece, the cowrie shells sit on a path of bright white which suggests a guiding path in addition to the light which shines through to the bottom of the lake.

A term which feels wholly applicable to Wesaw’s piece, “Water Carries Memory” is duality. Anishinaabe writer Leanne Simpson writes in As We Have Always Done that duality is “present in all of our stories and our ceremonies and our daily lives, but it is not an either or situation.”^[12] Simpson’s definition of the aesthetic of duality in Indigenous art may be applied to Wesaw’s work. Nearly every element in his piece contains a double meaning beyond just the composition of the image of the lake. Many elements are based in a foundation of Potawatomi culture and practices. Additionally, Wesaw’s piece allows for reflection on the physical space of the lake as well as the spiritual world. The piece elicits not only the literal feeling of sitting by the lake, but the dual feeling of considering our relationship with the lake and the temporality of the water. To focus on the spiritual or cultural elements of the piece does not erase the physical work that the piece is doing by creating the lulling sense of the lakeshore. As Simpson’s definition suggests, the duality in Wesaw’s work is not exclusionary, but rather a representation of the different ways we as living beings go through life; the interaction between the spiritual and physical worlds creates the whole of the piece. Whether it is the cowrie shells, the tobacco ties, or the ribbons, many elements of “Water Carries Memory” contain duality in the ways they are working in his piece which contains a multitude of cultural allusions while also creating the image of a lake. Additionally, the piece implores viewers to reflect on the duality sometimes imposed between the human world and the natural world. While it is possible to take on one perspective at a time, the duality between those two worlds does not neglect the fact that they are wholly interconnected. As Wesaw’s work asks viewers to reflect on their relationality to the lake, viewers are drawn to this duality through the fact that as humans, we not only have interaction with the lake, but the water of the lake is the same water which flows through our own bodies. In this way, the duality of the piece is also present in the examples of reciprocity throughout the work. Bodies moving through the space move the ribbons representing the water and the water breaks down sediments to make clay for the ceramic pieces. Thus, Wesaw’s piece, “Water Carries Memory” highlights the ways in which dual perspectives are wholly interconnected through a beautiful mix of materials, artistic techniques, and Potawatomi culture.