Through glass sculpture, storytelling, music, and sounds of the Pacific Northwest, this exhibition tells a story of the beginning of time and the transformation of the world from darkness into light. In a foundational story of the Tlingit People of Southeast Alaska, we follow Raven (whose Tlingit name is Yéil), a trickster character central to creation stories, on his journey to stealing and releasing the sun, moon, and stars.
Preston Kochéin Singletary (Tlingit American, born 1963) is an Indigenous artist who fuses historic glassblowing traditions with Pacific Northwest Indigenous art to honor his Tlingit heritage. The character of Raven, a shapeshifter, and the medium of glass are complementary. In its molten form, the shape of glass shifts and transforms; when solid, it can trick the eye and manipulate light. For this exhibition, Singletary tapped into the narrative power of glass by capturing the story’s main elements in transparent and translucent silhouettes. In doing so, he elevates the static nature of glass into a fluid agent of storytelling.
Stories of Raven and the Box of Daylight have been passed down for thousands of years. The exhibition blends versions of the story told by established Tlingit storytellers and elders and combined by Singletary and the exhibition curator, Miranda Shkík Belarde-Lewis, PhD (Tlingit/Zuni). Its appeal is multi-faceted: it has drama and explains the world, and it has similarities to stories from other cultures and religions around the world. We hope visitors recognize some of their own stories here.
Visual Description: In front of you is a clear glass sculpture, almost three feet tall, that depicts a man and woman with Raven perched above them, holding the sun. Above the sculpture is a quote that says, “Before here was here, Raven was named only Yéil. He was a white bird and the world was in darkness.” To the right, a long, dark hallway extends before you with a snowy dawn landscape projected along the walls, filled with fir trees. In the hallway ahead of you and on the right are two white glass sculptures of Raven with decorative carvings along his body, defining his eyes, beak, and wings. The decorative carvings are made up of waakh, an ovoid that resembles an eye, and a U-shaped form.
