VCC Magazine Spring 2018

Artistic Perspective from page 5

But I’d like to think that had they been able to see into the future, that they would have been in favor of a permanent tribute on the grounds of the Capitol honoring them and their descendants, a monument based on an object they created, on those small spirals that may have represented them then and the large one that represents them now. The spiral, symbolic to many cultures, is also one of nature’s fundamental forms, present not only in shells like the Nautilus but also in the growth pattern of plants and trees. By mapping the spiral onto the site, I wanted my design to embody not only the landscape past and present but the sacred harmonies underpinning and uniting all life here on Turtle Island. In contemplating a title for it, the word “mantle” seemed to fit, as besides meaning a cloak, it has other proper connotations. In geology, “mantle” is a layer of the earth, the mostly solid one between core and crust; in mollusks, the layer that forms, maintains and repairs the shell; and in leadership, mantle is an important role or responsibility that passes from one person to another. I’d like to think that the ancestors may have understood Mantle’s shape and scale, its orientation to the land and solid presence on this hill, its welcoming seating and path of local river stone and native plants, the miniature falls at its center, inscribed with the names of the rivers they paddled and tribes they knew. And I hope that they, and their descendants, including tribal members gathered here today, might excuse a northern Mohawk for whatever failings it may have, for whatever of import I may have unintentionally missed.  Rather than a statue or a static monument to be venerated, I designed Mantle to be an experience, one with which you would

engage not only visually but physically—that would, by virtue of your own movement, transport you from the grid into the American Indian circle. In our cultures, circles are everywhere, in the sun, the moon, in our spiral sense of time—from which you can look backward towards the past and forward to the future—and in our seasonal cycles and the ceremonies that attend them, in our designs, in the drum, and in our dance, our motion. . . . Angelo Baca, a talented young Navajo-Hopi filmmaker I recently heard speak at Columbia, in concluding his talk, said to the non- Indians in the audience: Do better than your ancestors did. I’m of the mind that the worst that happened in our shared history wasn’t inevitable and that things can change and improve. Mantle is a reality, as is federal recognition of six more Virginia Indian tribes, and so I close on a note of gratitude and celebration—of new beginnings. Following a competition that attracted artists from across the country, Alan Michelson’s design, Mantle , was chosen to represent the Virginia Indian Tribes, past and present. Michelson, a Mohawk member of Six nations of the Grand River, is a New York-based, Mohawk installation artist whose award-winning work addresses North American geography, history, and identity in multilayered, multimedia installations. Michelson studied at Columbia University and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Michelson is an artist, lecturer, and writer, and his work is featured in exhibitions around the world, and in permanent collections in Canada and the United States.

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Blessing by Chief Emeritus Ken Adams, Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe.

V irginia C apitol C onnections , S pring 2018

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