american - Denise Wallace Jewelry

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Denise and Samuel Wallace ALASKAN SPIRIT
Woman in the Moon Pin/Pendant, 1987, sterling silver, fossil ivory, 2 inches high. BELOW: Yu'pik Dancer Belt. 1997. Uk gold,
sterling silver, including fossil ivory, chrysoprase, fire agate, Chinese turquoise, lapis lazuli and petrified whale bone,
tallest figure 4 inches high, collection of Judy and Ron Yordi.
AMERICAN CRAFT
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D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / J A N U A RY 2 0 0 6
BY NEAL MATTHEWS • PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIYOSHI T06ASHI
The transformative power contained in the ancient stories of Arctic native peoples seems to have reached
across the centuries to find expression in the lives and
work of Denise and Samuel Wallace. Master jewelers
whose pieces depict icons and legends inspired by Old
Bering Sea culture, the Wallaces possess an almost
mystical ability to wrest continuity from disparate elements—gold and silver, culture and design, desert silver
inlaid with fossil ivory, the deep blue of lapis lazuli beside
the swirling green of malachite. Even their personal
backgrounds and ages make for an unlikely match.
Denise, born in 1957, traces her heritage to the Chugach
Aleuts of Southeast Alaska; Sam—she calls him Wally—
was born in 1936 in Virginia, and had hillbilly kin living in
Hoot Owl Holler.
How the two of them created a family of jewelers (with
their children Dawn and David] whose work has won
most Indian jewelry awards and is collected and exhibited in major museums is presented in surprising detail in
Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise & Samuel
Wallace by Lois Sherr Dubin.' The book, the second in a
series by Dubin on contemporary Indian jewelers, is the
catalog for an eponymous exhibition organized by the
independent curator Roslyn Tunis for the Anchorage
Museum of History and Art in Alaska, where it opened
last March.2
But in reading the book and viewing the exhibition, it
becomes clear that this is no ordinary art catalog. Its
basic structure hews closely to the layout of the exhibition, which is anchored bythe 16 storytelling belts the
Wallaces made between 1984 and 1997. Eight of the
belts, depicting everything from killer whales to Eskimo
dancers, are uniquely laid out on gatefolds and jump out
at the reader almost life-size. Like the belts themselves,
with their detachable pendants containing tiny hinges
and hidden compartments that reveal scrimshawed
faces, the book is an amalgam of biography, well-told
legends, technical information on jewelry making and
exquisite photography. With something to look at orthink
about on every page, it invites both quick flip-throughs
and long sessions beneath the reading lamp—a rare
combination for a so-called coffee-table book.
The genesis of the book is also unorthodox. Unlike
most exhibition catalogs, Arctic Transformations wasn't
produced by the originating museum and written bythe
curator. Denise Wallace and the sure-handed writer,
Lois Sherr Dubin, a board member of the National Museum of the American Indian who authored the best-selling
The History of Beads: From 30,000 B.C. to the Present,
came to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art with
the book idea already complete, according to the museum's director, Pat Wolf. "A conventional catalog and
LEFT AND RIGHT: Mask Maker Pin/Pendant, 1993, 14k gold, sterling silver, lapis lazuli, fossil ivory,
chrysoprase, 3Vz inches high, limited edition 1/5, collection of Brendelle Walden; Inuit Woman
Pin/Pendant, 1996, sterling silver, 14k gold, fossil ivory, chrysoprase, coral, gem silica, sugilite, 33A
inches high, limited edition 3/5, collection of Judith Powell and Melissa Prew. OPPOSITE PAGE: Sea Otter
Transformation Necklace, 2002, sterling silver, 14k gold, fossil ivory, pendant 23/« inches high, collection of Anne-Lise and Sherman Morss.
exhibition would mean we originated the book, which we
didn't," Wolf explained. Tunis, an educator who specializes in fine craft and the art of North American indigenous peoples, organized the exhibition to echo the book's
structure and layout. "It was Lois's idea to organize the
book thematically, and I drew from that," she said.
The volume also includes photographs of authentic
native objects, like ceremonial masks, that inspired their
interpretation by the Wallaces. Sam, a devoted rock
hound who does the lapidary (there are 176 pieces of
ivory and stone in the flagship Crossroads of Continents
Beit], and Denise, a graduate of the Institute of the American Indian Arts in Santa Fe who designs the pieces and
does the silver inlay, are at the forefront of a global
renaissance in indigenous art that began in the 1960s.
Textile creations of native people in Southeast Asia and
the Americas, jade and wood sculpture of New Zealand's
Maoris, the Dreamtime paintings of Australian aborigines—all have found eager collectors, knowledgeable
curators and growing audiences. Some of these works
are more ethnographic, relying on traditional forms and
materials such as pottery and blankets, while another
trope within the movement leans toward contemporary
interpretation, even transformation, of tribal traditions.
"Before, indigenous artists learned in a traditional
master/mentor system," explained Tunis. "Today, many
native/urban artists have been trained academically.
They're going back to their native communities and finding that they haven't lost their culture. Their fresh
AMERICAN CRAFT
approach is making native traditions more accessible to
people like us."
The way the Wallaces riff on northern native traditions
has a deep impact on nonnatives. Apart from her introduction, Dubin wisely keeps most of her interpretations
of the Wallaces' creations out of the text, leaving it to the
collectors to explain what draws them to the unique
designs depicting creatures and stories that might seem
utterly foreign to them (the belts sold for between
$30,000 and $65,000 in the 1990s). Wearing the pieces,
says one collector, means "you are sort of inviting magic
to happen." Another observes, "It is as if the jewelry created itself," evoking the power of legend to take new
form through the hands of those working to keep the old
stories alive. •
1. Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise & Samuel Wallace, a 240-page, illustrated catalog by Lois Sherr Dubin, photographs by Kiyoshi Togashi, published 2005 by Easton Studio
Press/Theodore Dubin Foundation, is $60 from CDS Books,
800-343-4499.
2. The exhibition went to the Mingei International Museum. San
Diego (July 11 -October 16), is at the Heard Museum, Phoenix
(October 29- February 5,2006). and travels to the National
Museum of the American Indian, New York, and the Institute of
American Indian Art, Santa Fe, in 2006.
Neal Matthews, a freelance writer, lives in San Diego. He
has written on native art in North America, Panama, New
Zealand and Australia.
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D E C E M B E R ZOOS/JANUARY 2006