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Michelle Erickson

Pilgrim Flask PlyMYTH

Now On View

Description

Maker

Michelle Erickson (American, b. 1960 in Hampton, VA)
Jonathan James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag, b. 1976 in New Bedford, MA)

Title

Pilgrim Flask PlyMYTH

Year

2019

Medium

Stoneware with glaze and copper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Stoneware with glaze and copper

Dimensions

Dimensions: 27" h x 8" w x 9" d (approximate)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum purchase: gift of Joseph A. Chazan, MD

Object Number

2021.95

Type

Ceramics

Exhibition History

Art and Design from 1900 to Now

Jun 04, 2022 – Sep 01, 2026

Label copy

This vessel by Jonathan James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag) and Michelle Erickson reckons with the 1620 North American landing of the English ship Mayflower and its aftermath. Unlike 400 years ago, when European arrival launched the destructive colonization and displacement of Wampanoag peoples, this contemporary collaboration was one of mutual humanity and respect.

For Erickson, the ceramic quahog, cowrie, and scallop shells “hold significant meaning to respective cultures, but all represent the natural world, whose imperilment threatens us all.” The vessel’s shell body and gas-nozzle neck also reference Shell, one of the world’s largest oil companies.

Mined and worked by Indigenous people long before European arrival, copper explodes from the nozzle, creating what James-Perry calls “a portal . . . between air and water, different dimensions or different worlds.” Here, materials and cultures unite in witness of transgressions against the earth and Native peoples, calling for change.

–Elizabeth A. Williams, David and Peggy Rockefeller Curator of Decorative Arts and Design

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Tombstone

Michelle Erickson (American, b. 1960 in Hampton, VA)
Jonathan James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag, b. 1976 in New Bedford, MA)

Pilgrim Flask PlyMYTH, 2019

Stoneware with glaze and copper

Dimensions: 27" h x 8" w x 9" d (approximate)

Museum purchase: gift of Joseph A. Chazan, MD 2021.95

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