My TOP THREE in RENWICK GALLERY at DC

The Renwick Gallery is the sister of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, which  houses contemporary american arts from sculpture to installations to crafts using trashes and currently celebrates its 50th year.

My top three favorites from this gallery are the truce flag, the glass cast sculpture and the spirit box.

Top 1

 I was in awe of the TRUCE FLAG and the question which applies to our warring nations today, "What if this flag of truce was the flag we knew, instead of the Confederate

battle flag?" 

Yes, what if?  What if we start anew for the 21st century and move forward? It's not abandoning the past but looking at the future without guns and blood. 

Sonya Clark

born 1967, Washington, DC

in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia

Monumental

2019

Woven linen with madder dye and tea stain

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the American Women's

History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, and the Kenneth R. Trapp Acquisition Fund.

"THE NATION Sonya Clark weaves stories that celebrate Blackness while interrogating the historical roots of racial injustice in the United States. Monumental was inspired by objects

in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. During a visit to the

museum, Clark discovered the white dishtowel waved at Appomattox Court House in 1865 to signal the Confederate army's surrender in the American Civil War. It made her wonder, "What if this flag of truce was the flag we knew, instead of the Confederate

battle flag?" Clark set out to create a monumental version of the symbol. The scale

and presentation intentionally reference the Star-Spangled Banner, another iconic

object in the National Museum of American History's collection.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the paths toward emancipation and reconstruction

were violent. The legacy of slavery-the core issue of the Civil War-continues

to trouble the political, cultural, and social landscape into this present moment.

Monumental holds the self-evident truths of American history in its humble threads

and offers a different perspective: "Imagine if each time we reached for the dishcloth

by our sinks, we recalled the war waged by yesteryear's enemies of the country and

their surrender," reflects Clark. "Are we creating the future we desire through what we

do, how we are, and what we make?"

Top 2

This glass cast is pretty in person, an eye catching beauty. Yes, seeing something pretty yet classic is a luxury today when everything are bared from navels to asses, or used-once-then-thrown-away dress for instant gratification or instagram. We ask ourselves as women, how do we want to dress? Are we dressed according to trend or our taste? 

Karen LaMonte

born 1967, New York City

Vestige (Pleated Dress)

2000

cast glass

"This vestige of a woman asks, Who was she?

How did she see herself? How did others see

her? The translucent glass illuminates more

questions than answers.

This glass dress marks a breakthrough in

Karen LaMonte's creative career. In 1999, she

traveled on a Fulbright Fellowship to experiment with glass casting techniques at a foundry in Prague. Her first tests were, as she recalled, total catastrophes. LaMonte persisted and after eight months of repeated attempts - and living off cheap cabbage- she successfully cast each element of Vestige (Pleated Dress). Her rigorous technique makes possible the delicate folds of

a dress. Promised gift from the collection of Myra and Harold Weiss"

Top 3

This mysterious blue box with a moving "spirit" is also a favorite considering its uniqueness and the story behind it. Check my youtube to best appreciate this art.

Preston Singletary

Tlingit

born 1963, San Francisco, CA

Safe Journey, from the series Spirit Boxes

2021 cast and sand-carved glass on wooden

pedestal

"Safe Journey is based on traditional storage

boxes of Northwest Native communities,

sometimes used as burial boxes. This Spirit Box is a tribute to the artist's father, who passed away in 2019. The killer whale theme identifies Preston Singletary's clan and symbolizes a transition from the physical world to the spirit realm. Two orb lights represent the spirits of his father and grandfather and create the effect

IiijjjDrawing on his Tlingit heritage, Singletary

reimagines ancient themes, forms, and designs traditionally made in materials like cedar, shell,and bone in the contemporary medium of glass.

Here, Singletary carved and sandblasted the

designs onto kiln-cast panels of glass.

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase with support from the James Renwick Alliance for Craft, in honor

of the 50th anniversary of the Renwick Gallery and the 40th anniversary of the Alliance, and the Kenneth R. Trapp

Acquisition Fund, 2021.82A-C"