Grounded in clay, rooted in tradition

Mar. 31—details

—Earth, Wind, Fire, Water: Pueblo Pottery and the Environment — Matthew Martinez, Ph.D., Jason Garcia, and Christina M. Castro, Ph.D. (Taos/Jemez/Chicana), 1 p.m., Friday, March 31

—Conversation and Pottery Making: An Afternoon with Clarence Cruz (Ohkay Owingeh) and Samuel Villarreal Catanach (Pojoaque) — 1 p.m. April 14

—Untold Pueblo Stories: Hidden Histories and the Pueblo Diaspora — Diego Medina (Tiwa/Piro/Manso), Albert Alvidrez (Ysleta del Sur), and Jerry Dunbar (Ysleta del Sur), 1 p.m. April 21

—Free; Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, 710 Camino Lejo; sarweb.org

The Mogollon jar is at least 700 years old, and with her fingers, Tara Gatewood (Shirr-whip Tui/Isleta/ Diné) explores its creases and grooves. Her fingertips are tracing the paths of the potter, and for a moment, she's transported back in time and participating in a conversation with her ancestors.

Gatewood, one of 60 community curators involved in the School for Advanced Research's Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery exhibition, says the artifacts involved are more like a time capsule in that they affirm much of what she's been taught about her heritage through the years.

"Everything that we're taught within our Indigenous community is that ties have never been broken," Gatewood says. "There's never been a lull in history. There's never been a gap of understanding. There's never been a gap of connection. ... To have this physical vessel ratifying what we know as Indigenous people is not only uplifting but also inspiring."

Gatewood is one of several experts involved in a speaker series attached to the Grounded in Clay exhibit, which has been at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture since last July. The exhibit was commissioned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the SAR's Indian Arts Research Center pottery collection in 1922.

Grounded in Clay will move to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in July, and it has engagements at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts in 2024 and the Saint Louis Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2025. Gatewood was scheduled to host the first lecture of the speaker series, which will conclude with a chat about the Pueblo Diaspora on April 21.

Matthew Martinez (Ohkay Owingeh), Ph.D., who will host a discussion on Friday, March 31, about Pueblo Pottery and the Environment, says the exhibition is a great opportunity not only for people in Santa Fe to learn, but also for people in other cities to establish a common thread with another culture.

"Taking the exhibits to the East Coast to a place like the Met is a really big step, and it gives a platform to highlight the traditions and the art that we come from," he says. "I hope the images of the maps that we're including in the exhibit, the videos, and the text translate to a place like the East Coast so that people really understand and appreciate that we, too, come from traditions that are a great value and great worth from our own perspectives here."

Martinez, a writer and educator, chose a lidded turtle figure made by the late Greg Garcia to be part of the exhibition, and the artist's son Jason Garcia (Santa Clara) will be part of his talk on March 31.

When the curating process began, Martinez says, he thought it might be unwieldy. It was happening during the pandemic, and the discussions were taking place over a Zoom call. How could they take the work of 60 curators and present a unified view of pottery from 21 different Pueblo tribes?

But over time, Martinez says, the exhibit shaped itself.

"It was a really great way to connect with each other during challenging times," says Martinez. "Everybody's choices were really unique but very personal. There was a lot of commonality as far as focus on our Pueblo value system and the importance of clay and pottery. Whether we were artists or educators, we all had shared stories and strong reverence for the critical importance of clay in our own family and in our community lives."

Gatewood, a journalist and photographer, chose two objects for the exhibit.

The first one, the Mogollon Jar, was made between 1050 and 1300. The second artifact chosen by Gatewood, the Isleta Jar, was likely created between 1880 and 1920.

They're two very different artifacts with very different shapes, but Gatewood thinks it's more helpful to look at the things they hold in common rather than assess their differences. They are still here; they are strong and have survived the test of time to serve as a testament to their creators.

"I think that resonates with us as Indigenous people in the sense of our resilience through time," she says. "Something that was relevant hundreds of years ago is still relevant today. Some people may look at this and say it's an ancient culture, but it's still relevant and it's still strong and it's what has sustained us as people through time."

Gatewood, in an essay about the Isleta Jar, notes that the shape is reminiscent of jars that Pueblo women use to carry water on their heads. She says it comes from a time when her great-grandmother was a child, when the jar was not adorned with designs.

"The design is the fire scale around the pot that made these different impressions," Gatewood says. "But I think also the shape comes into hyperfocus; I would imagine people of the time could look at the pottery and identify the maker just in the way they shaped things. The identity that comes forward through form also became the artistry."

There is depth and breadth in the items chosen for the exhibit, from simple traditional cooking pots from centuries ago to artifacts with more artistic design. Martinez chose the lidded turtle figure because it reminded him of his childhood at Ohkay Owingeh. Martinez writes in his essay that he can recall being awakened by his father at the crack of dawn to get muddied up in preparation for a custom known as the Turtle Dance.

The ceramic turtle, he says, is a reminder for Pueblo people of the traditions they share with their ancestors. Martinez says the clay that has sustained generations of Pueblo potters is still collected in much the same way that it would've been 500 years ago.

"We come from a tradition that is very much about the process, and that's the key to how we understand artwork and creativity," he says. "We go and ask for respect to take what we're going to be using for a particular context, and we thank the Earth that we're able to be there and share in these materials. Anything that's not used in the end and the firing process for the paints or any other pigments go back, and they're returned to these sites."