To Holly Wilson, materials have a deep meaning. “Bronze is a heavy substance that comes from the earth, and it also has copper in it, which has purifying properties. Wood, especially cedar, is about purification,” she says. But recently, she’s turned her attention to glass. “Glass is different. It lets you see through it. It asks you to look longer and more closely, and that changes how you experience the piece.”
Hope in the Eyes of a Fawn, unique bronze, patina and cedar, 19 x 8½ x 8 in.
Glass sculpture will be the focus of her upcoming exhibition at Bonner David Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona. The show is titled Through the Lens. Gallery owner Christi Bonner Manuelito says, “Holly Wilson’s work embodies a continuous dialogue between contemporary and historical human cultures—specifically her own Native family traditions—rooted in community and shared storytelling.”
Wilson, who is a member of the Delaware Nation, first started experimenting with glass sculpture nearly a decade ago, but it wasn’t until she took a workshop in glass casting that she fell in love with the medium. “It was always something I was interested in, but I didn’t really have the opportunity to fully explore it until recently,” she says. “Once I did, it felt like this whole new direction opened up.”
She uses a process called “casting in the void.” First, she makes a mold, and then the glass is laid on top in the kiln. In the casting process, glass behaves like honey, moving slowly compared to bronze or silver.
Of the Land, bronze and glass, 9 x 7 x 2½ in.
“When you remove the mold and hold the piece up to the light, the figure inside isn’t always immediately obvious. You have to engage with it,” Wilson says. “For me, this really reflects the idea of being a Native person. We’re still here, even if you don’t always see us.”
In her piece Of the Land, Wilson incorporates plants she collected in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico, while she was completing a residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts. “The turquoise makes me think of Santa Fe. The stone, obviously, but also the sky,” she says. “The piece is really about the land itself.” Some of the plants were pushed into the glass mold. The sticks and flowers on the outside were assembled using lost wax bronze casting.
Hear My Voice, bronze
“The show, for me, is a culmination of stories that were told to me by my family, and stories that I’ve made up with my kids,” Wilson says. “It’s a way of looking at the world. The beautiful parts, and also some of the rougher parts.”
Through the Lens opens March 5 with an artist reception from 6 to 9 p.m. during Scottsdale’s Native Spirit ArtWalk. The show also overlaps with the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in Phoenix. —
Bonner David Galleries » 7040 E. Main Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 (480) 941-8500 » www.bonnerdavid.com
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