Circular basket, woven in a radial pattern with a bordered edge, in undyed, green, and red straw-like fibers. Woven in is an image of a necklaced head dressed human.
Circular basket, woven in a radial pattern with a bordered edge, in undyed, green, and red straw-like fibers. Woven in is an image of a necklaced head dressed human.
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Unknown Maker, Hopi

Basketry plaque

Maker

Unknown Maker, Hopi

Culture

Hopi, Native North American

Title

Basketry plaque

Year

late 1800s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

wicker

Geography

Arizona; Place Made: Oraibi Mesa

Dimensions

Diameter: 45.1 cm (17 3/4 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

44.582

Type

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 15: Green

RISD Museum’s Manual 15 Celebrates Green

New life is always shown to us through mokingpu, the color green-the light green stems of rabbitbrush, one of the few colors seen the winter; the tender green shoots of new corn that emerge in the spring against the backdrop of the dry brown earth. Green offers hope. Green represents life.

-Susan Sekaquaptewa

A welcome splash of color after a long winter, the RISD Museum’s fifteenth issue of Manual is awash in shades of green, celebrating the color's myriad associations with nature and growth, environmentalism and sustainable practices, newness and hope (as well as poison and currency) and delving into the histories of specific pigments and processes. Manual 15 opens with an introductory essay by Hopi grower Susan Sekaquaptewa, who details the soft hues of the flora of Northern Arizona. “You appreciate plants more when you develop a relationship with them,” she explains.

This issue of Manual is supported in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional generous support is provided by the RISD Museum Associates and Sotheby’s.

Exhibition History

Being and Believing in the Natural World
Perspectives from the Ancient Mediterranean, Asia, and Indigenous North America
Oct 22, 2022 – Jun 04, 2023

Label copy

The Narragansett and other New England tribes weave baskets from ash and oak trees for everyday use and the commercial market. The flowerlike stamped designs on the example at center are common across the region.

Sa’lakwmana, cloud spirit and bringer of rain, is depicted on this plaque woven from plants in the Hopi homelands in Arizona. Hopi gardener Susan Sekaquaptewa explains that the relationship with plants “is reciprocal. We offer gratitude for what they give us, and we pray for the rains and the sun that nourish them.”

Water also is precious in the Zuni homelands of western New Mexico. Pottery ollas like this one (right) were made to collect, store, and carry water.

-SB

Blankets and Baskets
Weavings from the American West
Jul 02, 2004 – Oct 10, 2004

Label copy

Hopi men and women shared the production of these plaques. Women wove, and men painted the designs. Represented here is Shalako Maiden Kachina, a cloud spirit and bringer of rain. This plaque is an unusually large and very early example of the form.

Museum Works of Art Fund 44.582

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Hopi
Basketry plaque, late 1800s
Rabbitbrush, sumac, or willow, yucca, kaolin, pigment; wicker plaited
Diameter: 45.1 cm (17 3/4 inches)
Museum Works of Art Fund 44.582

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