Medicine?

These interactive sculptures are made of beer bottle caps rolled into cones and attached to binding tape the same way a traditional jingle dress would be made. The jingle dress is a style of dress worn by female dancers at a powwow. This healing dance started among the Ojibwe community in the early 19th century. Since tobacco is medicine, hundreds of metal tobacco can lids are rolled into cones and attached to the outside of a dress in various patterns. A cacophony of sounds is created as the dancer moves. Medicine? comments on the complicated relationship some Natives have with alcohol. It is a message to those in our communities and families struggling with addiction that alternative, traditional, and safe ways of healing exist. The passageway represents change and hope for the future.

Visitors are invited to interact with the sculpture by walking through it or touching gently.