Project Type: Public Art

Sense of Place-Holly Wilson

Sense of Place

Sense of Place

2018, 8”x4”x4″ and 6”x4″x4″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina and Geode Rock

We strive for human attachment and belonging whether in a place or a sense of self. This boy and girl are not 2 people but oneself, 2 halves of a whole. The geode can reflect the same and when broken open it reveals its sides and secrets hidden within. The figures are not glued to the rock, they are fitted, like a key in a lock. They balance in their stand much like we do in our life.

Sold Through the Studio

In the Collection of The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Exhibition History
  • Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis
    (January 9-March 16, 2018)
Sense of Place-v4-Holly Wilson
Sense of Place

 

Sense of Place-v1-Holly Wilson
Sense of Place
How Much More Must She Bear-Holly Wilson

How Much More Must She Bear

How Much More Must She Bear

2018, 36”x 24”x 4.5”, Crayon, Plexiglas, and Birch

The Bear Girls do not see the color of each other’s skin or limitations that have been placed upon them because of who they are or where they come from. They are in this world together and the possibilities are endless.

While getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, folders, colored pencils, and crayons. The kids began talking about their friends. In the conversation, they were describing the children, “the girl with the yellow hair, the boy with the brown skin,” in a very casually descriptive manner with no malice to the differences. This made me think more about how we see people as we grow older. How we change in our viewpoints and how we judge based on what we see on the surface. We are all the same below, no matter the color, shape, or origin.

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In the Collection of The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS

 

Holly Wilson-Enough

Enough

ENOUGH

2015, 10.5” x 14.5” x 12.5”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina

How much is enough? If one is good today then 100 is better, we are overwhelmed by what we have yet we want for more. This girl stands atop boxes of sugary cupcakes that are nothing more than empty, hollow treats.

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In the Collection of: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

Exhibition History

  • Four by Four 2016: Midwest Invitational Exhibition, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri (September 10 – December 4, 2016)
  • Conversations: Eiteljorg Native Art Fellowship, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis IN (November 14, 2015-February 14, 2016)

Holly Wilson-Enough-detail

Back Left: "Inside-Outside" by Mario Martinez" .Middle: "Secrets are Burdens", Front: "Enough" by Holly Wilson. Right Front: "It's Probably Magic", Right Middle 1 & 2 "Ancestral Realms II", "Unveiled Universe" by Mario Martinez. Back Right: "Interrupted Forms #2" by Brenda Mallory. At the Exhibition Conversations: Eiteljorg Museum 2015 Contemporary Art Fellowship.
Back Left: “Inside-Outside” by Mario Martinez” .Middle: “Secrets are Burdens”, Front: “Enough” by Holly Wilson. Right Front: “It’s Probably Magic”, Right Middle 1 & 2 “Ancestral Realms II”, “Unveiled Universe” by Mario Martinez. Back Right: “Interrupted Forms #2” by Brenda Mallory. At the Exhibition Conversations: Eiteljorg Museum 2015 Contemporary Art Fellowship.

Belonging

BELONGING

2014, 9.5″ x 10″ x 6″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and Geode Rock

“Belonging” we are always looking for that feeling of belonging that sense of a key in a lock. The geode I broke open revealing two sides. Here I have a boy and a girl, I see them as masculine and feminine in us all. The figures here are fitted to that geode when they are still in wax; they are not glued they are keyed to the rock that they belong, two sides of the self two halves of a whole.

Sold Through the Studio

In the Collection of Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

Exhibition History

  • Conversations: Eiteljorg Native Art Fellowship, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis IN (November 14, 2015-February 14, 2016)

Masked

MASKED

2012, 22.5” x 3.5” x 4”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and African Mahogany

Masks are layered with meaning from creatures in nature to a child’s imagined world. As children, we make and wear masks to be anything we want or need to be and we could do anything in them, from being a superhero to a bird in flight. As adults, the layers and meaning deepen and grow and these masks are a way to represent the different personas that we need or desire to be in life. They become an identity that one can live through or hide behind in our roles – I am a daughter, a sister, a friend, an aunt, a wife, a mother, artist, and Indian.

Sold Through the Studio

In the Collection of Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

Exhibition History

  • Conversations: Eiteljorg Native Art Fellowship, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis IN (November 14, 2015-February 14, 2016)

Under The Skin-Holly Wilson

Under The Skin

While getting my children ready for school last fall we were pulling together pencils, folders, colored pencils, and crayons. They had to have 4 sets of 24 crayons each and we had leftovers from sets of the past years, some colors had never been used, and we were combining them together so we’d know how many new boxes would be required. The kids were talking about their friends at the new school and friends of their past school. In the conversation, they were describing the children “the girl with the yellow hair, the boy with the brown skin”, in a very causal descriptive manner with no malice to the differences. This made me think more about how we see people and how one is judged. The smell of the crayons, the vivid colors, and the thoughts of my youth brought me to this crayon project. How we change in our viewpoints of people, and how we judge people based on race and color. We are all one below that surface, that surface of skin, no matter the color, the shape, or the origin.

UNDER THE SKIN
Crayola Crayon
8’ x 6’ x 1.5”, 2015

Sold M.A. Doran Gallery

Collection of: Tulsa Public Library, Downtown, Tulsa Oklahoma

Exhibition History

  • A Foot in Two Worlds, Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (June 18 – August 21, 2015)

Under The Skin-Holly Wilson-detail

Under the Skin-Holly Wilson-Detail Girl Red

Bloodline Past Present Future

“Bloodline: Past Present Future”. Is a 15-foot long trail of history. There are no names here because they are all our family, our history, are now and the next generation.

There are 42 figures which came from a book I read in college, “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”. In the book, they were in search to the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. The answer a super computer gave them was the number 42. For me this simple number is what makes me laugh at life, we can overlook the answer that is in front of us all, the ultimate answer to life is our past our now and our future. Who we are and what we learn from our life’s and those that came before us and what we leave for the next generation.
A Cedar tree is the base for the figures to walk across. Growing up my mother would use cedar to purify our home, release spirits and chase away bad dreams, that smell for me is home. The tree is cut lengthwise so it exposes the rough center of the tree and its lines, the lines of the tree show its life its history. I de-barked the exterior but kept the curve of the tree and its raw surface. The curve is mounted to the wall; the figures stand upon the top outer edge. You see them walking through time, their life above and the trees life below.
There are 3 sections one for our past one for our present and one for our future. There is a figure at the joint each section looking back that figure is the storyteller. They will tell of the last generation, passing on the stories of who came before so we do not forget, so we honor who we are and where we each came from.

Light cast shadows of the figures on the wall, these shadows represent memory. Like a shadow these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.

The Cigar Figures come from a Native American story of my childhood that my mother told of the “Stick People”. The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name, she never described the figures and I was drawn to the idea of what they looked like for most of my life. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past. The figures are made of real cigars and found sticks. I create molds of the cigars and then cast them and the sticks in bronze. The faces are of the people from my past as far back as I can trace.

Bloodline Past Present Future
Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, Cedar, and Steel

In the Collection of The Heritage Trust, Oklahoma City OK

Bloodline Past Present Future, Installed, Detail View

Bloodline Past Present Future, Installed, Detail View

Bloodline Past Present Future, Installed, Detail View