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bag, twined
bag, twined
bag, twined
This ancestor is a twined bag, made from cotton twine and wool yarn, presenting an hourglass shaped thunderbird or animikiig, and two underwater panthers or mishibizhiig, on the reverse side. The sides of this bag contain vertical geometric designs with a red, yellow, and black colour pattern. On the reverse side, geometric lines represent moving water, or gagizhibaajiwan. that flow alongside the panther. The representation of thunderbirds and underwater panthers are characteristics of Anishinaabe oral traditions: being represented together on this bag show the fluidity between the upper and underworld of the Anishinaabe cosmos. This ancestor is currently located within the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Potawatomi
Detroit Institute of Arts records
This ancestor is featured in Alan Corbiere and Crystal Migwans’ chapter "Animikii miinwaa Mishibizhiw: Narrative Images of the Thunderbird and the Underwater Panther," in the exhibition catalogue for “Before the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes," edited by David Penney and Gerald McMaster and published by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in 2013.
Read More About This Relative
Cotton twine, wool yarn
The rectangular beige bag has a different geometric design woven on each side, borderd by vertical stripes of red, yellow and black. Recto: two opposing panthers in side view surrounded by geometric designs. Verso: an eagle surrounded by smaller eagles in pairs and geometric designs.
Used as a storage bag according to the DIA records.
Provenance
purchased by Milford G. Chandler [1889-1981]
purchased? by Richard A. Pohrt [1911-2005] (Flint, Michigan, USA)
1981-present, purchased 1981 by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Richard A. Pohrt
As stated on DIA website
This ancestor has been exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada in their “Anishinaabeg Art and Power” exhibit in 2017.
This ancestor has been featured in Alan Corbiere and Crystal Migwans’ “Before the Horizons”. The Art of the Great Lakes Indians. Exh. cat., Flint Institute of Arts. Flint, MI, 1973, no. 403 (ill.). Phillips, R.B. "Dreams and Designs: Iconographic Problems in Great Lakes Twined Bags." Bulletin of the DIA 62, no. 1 (1986): 26-37. Penney, David W. Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Chandler-Pohrt Collection. Seattle and London, 1992, cat. no. 21.
As stated on DIA website
Before the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes," edited by David Penney and Gerald McMaster and published by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in 2013.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown. "Twined bag" GRASAC ID 26069, Located in the Detroit Institute of Arts, catalogue number 81.372.
This record was augmented by Natasha Fares in December 2023.
Good images are not yet available for this item, as it was on exhibit at the time of the GRASAC visit and not on the list of objects to discuss. By request, Kelly Konieczki created a GKS profile after the visit. A DIA Museum Catalogue System (TMS) photograph was added as a temporary place-holder image. KK also added all available information about the item from TMS after the visit, however did not research its supplementary files.