Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
The latest: Jewelry for Gods, musician movie role, grillz go blue
ART: Oversized adornment in NYC
With a multilayered presentation of sculpture, installation, and video, “iiZiiT [3]: RIEGE Jewelry + Supply,” through March 29 at Canal Projects, delves into Southwest pawn shops and trading posts found by artist Eric-Paul Riege in his home of Na’nízhoozhí (Gallup, New Mexico).
Modern trading posts buy and sell Native goods, this show grapples with presumed notions of cultural authenticity in the marketplace economy of Native goods. Riege’s hanging sculptures wow with upsized jewelry worn by “Holy People”: giants from Diné tradition who roamed the Earth. Titled “jaatloh4Ye’iitsoh,” or Earrings for the Big Gods, the monumental woven earrings and necklaces are thought to amplify the senses: earrings can hear what wearers miss and necklaces placed close to the heart help to feel emotions more deeply.
Riege’s soft sculptures combine genuine horsehair, sheep shearling, wool hand-spun along with synthetic dyed hair extensions and faux fur – “real” versus “fake.” The title of the exhibition, “iiZiiT [3]: RIEGE Jewelry + Supply,” refers to a double entendre – “is it?” or “for real?” – which poses the question, “Is it real?”
As the textile chandelier earrings sway in the space, Riege’s video serves as an ad for RIEGE Jewelry + Supply where the felt sculptures jingle, drop and move, capturing ambient and energetic movements.
Reige said, “I was told by one of my grandmothers that we adorn our body with jewelry so our Holy People can find and follow us and that our jewelry is listening and feeling with us. I began making large textile earrings as totems of memory called jaatloh4Ye’iitsoh meaning ‘ear rope for the big gods/ monsters,’ which mimics and embellishes the traditional looped form of stacked beads.
“I am a maker and artist and language keeper working in woven sculpture, installation, wearable art, collage, sound and durational performance. My work is a celebration of ancestral knowledge passed down by my mother’s family. I am a descendent of weavers and fiber artists extending back to Na’ashjé’ii Asdzáá (Spider Woman); a Holy Person who protects Diné peoples and taught us how to weave. I consider all that I do a form of weaving.”
FILM: Where the road leads
In the new film “Road To Everywhere,” Los Angeles cab driver Jason Schuyler is offered the fare of a lifetime by Jake, a local casino dealer and gambler. Jake asks Schuyler to drive him across the border to the Navajo Nation in Arizona, the home he abandoned 30 years ago, to see his grandson compete in a Native American rodeo.
The driver is played by Whip Hubley, who is reprising the same character he portrayed 30 years in the film “Driven,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was released in theaters before airing on Showtime, The Sundance Channel and PBS.
Two-time Grammy winner Robert Mirabal, Navajo, plays Jake. Mirabal, who hails from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, is a Native American “Renaissance man.” He is musician, composer, painter, master moccasin craftsman, poet, actor, screenwriter, author, horseman and farmer.
“It was a great experience,” he said in an interview with Taos News. “As a performer, it’s an amazing, reassuring boost when a director, writer and the producers value your talent enough to offer you the role of a character like Jake. Creating a character that is believable and strong was a highlight for me as an actor.”
His television credits include “Yellowstone” and “Walker, Texas Ranger,” and his film credits include “Woman Walks Ahead.” His handmade flutes have been displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian. Mirabal performs worldwide, sharing flute songs, tribal rock, dance and storytelling. His breakthrough PBS musical production, “Music From a Painted Cave,” is a marvel of Native American traditional/rock fusion and storytelling.
He also scored the soundtrack for the four-part Hulu Series “The Assassination of Annie Mae.”
DESIGN: Jewelry with a bite
Turquoise is seen on rings, earrings, necklaces, belt buckles and … teeth? California designer Shelly Devine at Devine x Co is creating handmade silver grillz with turquoise inlay, a show-stopping way to wear this lucky stone.
The designer sends out a mold kit for your chompers, then customers send it back after picking the stones and metal. There is an option to use opals and gold.
These snap in grillz are purely cosmetic, “like a piece of fine jewelry. Great to wear for looks, but they are not meant to be lived in,” Devine says.