SUNY Oswego hosted visiting artist Peter Jones from the Onondaga Nation, whose work is featured in the Tyler Art Gallery, on Oct. 11 in Lanigan Hall.
The event began with a land acknowledgement given by art history professor Lisa Seppi to the Native Americans as recognition that SUNY Oswego stands on land that used to belong to them. She also gave some background information about Jones and his work before he began the presentation.
Jones began studying Native style pottery in 1963 at the age of 15 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While living there, Jones sold his art at trading posts in order to make money.
“I did a lot of southwestern style, I made a living from it,” Jones said. “[But] it didn’t keep me out of trouble.”
In 1977 Jones moved back to his home on the Cattaraugus Reservation in upstate New York with the goal to bring Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, pottery back to the Six Nations, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora, because “it deserved to be brought back.”
Jones began doing as much research as he could about the history of Onondaga ceramics because, “I knew more about [southwestern] native art than about my own.” He travelled “wherever they had a collection” of Iroquois pottery, including the Smithsonian, but the Rochester Museum and Science Center “had the best collection of Seneca pottery.” There, he was allowed to view and touch private collections of ceramics to feel their weight and see how they were made.
Haudenosaunee ceramic forms are made using a wood firing pit and not a kiln, which most other modern pottery is fired in, and after 57 years of experience, Jones said he went from “a 10% success rate to almost 100%.” Jones also uses traditional methods of creating his pieces including hand coiling and slab assembly.
After years of working with Iroquis styles, Jones said “it’s not hard” to finish a project in a timely manner because his designs guide him.
“I work very quickly as far as ceramics go,” Jones said. “I strike when the ideas [do], I can finish a piece in a day.”
Most of Jones’ works are inspired by modern events and problems within both the Native community and society as a whole. He is not afraid to share his opinion on issues that are important to him and this often translates into his art.
“If you don’t speak up, you won’t be heard,” Jones said. “And that’s what my pieces are: my voice.”
Jones’ previous inspirations include 9/11, boarding schools for Native peoples in both the U.S. and Canada, the entrepreneurship choices of the Onondaga Nation of casinos and tobacco and the abuses of the Catholic Church on Native Americans. He also pulls from his culture and uses pottery to tell stories.
The piece “Post 9-11” is on display at the National September 11th Memorial and Museum and uses imagery of planes, clouds of smoke and a screaming man.
“Everything about it represents war,” Jones said. “[The smoke clouds] came out better than I could have done it intentionally. A lot of things in ceramics just work.”
Another subject Jones feels strongly about is how the Onondaga Nation built casinos, gas stations and tobacco shops.
“I think the problem was [that] Onondaga got involved in money making,” Jones said. “Money always wins out on these things. It can be good, it can be bad depending on how you use it.”
Jones continued to say that tobacco is used in traditional Native American ceremonies, but how it is sold and why are the reasons he does not agree with the practice. His pieces “PiggyBank,” 1994, and “Horns of a Dilemma,” 1992, symbolizes this.
Some of Jones’ other art is based on Indigenous Americans’ relations with the U.S. government and how unstable they can be.
“We are only as sovereign as our government allows us to be,” Jones said. “[They] can declare us not Indian anymore.”
“Dialogue of Sovereignty” represents this as it depicts a Native American and U.S. government official that are back to back and both are speaking, but according to Jones “neither figure is talking to each other.”
COVID-19 also inspired Jones’ work and gave him more freedom to work because he was on unemployment benefits. Without having to worry about “rent or bills,” he could focus on his art.
“A lot of things were going through my head,” Jones said. “It [COVID-19] gave me time to step back and work.”
Two of Jones’ pieces during the pandemic included a “medicine man” wearing a mask and a figure in a 14th century plague mask holding a coronavirus molecule. He also used horns on many of the figures because they represent evil in Iroquois culture.
In the future, Jones hopes to continue teaching Iroquois pottery, particularly in areas that have no pottery. His overall goal is to see all six nations have someone who practices the traditional art form.
Jones also encouraged everyone to always follow their dreams as he did,z no matter what they are.
“If that is your goal, go for it,” Jones said. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t because you can. I’ll tell you you can.”
Some of Jones’ pottery can be seen on display at Tyler Art Gallery’s “Native New York” exhibit until Nov. 14.
Kailee Montross | The Oswegonian
