Marie Watt

Over the course of scavenging for wool blankets, I have come across twin blanket sets for twin beds. This is an unlikely prompt for “twin” references in our culture, but it is mine. In the Seneca creation story, Skywoman’s daughter dies giving birth to twins, sometimes referred to Right and Left, Sapling and Flint, Daylight and Night Dweller. While these brothers have conflicting natures, they are both considered necessary to keep the world in balance. In a chaotic world, making sense of light and darkness has urgency. Research, manifested in sewing circles with featured guests (Indigenous storytellers, a classical studies scholar, an astrologist, and twins), will generate new work (samplers, large hand stitched pieces, and a sculptural installation) that reflects on how Indigenous “twin” stories nurture, instruct, disrupt, and affect understandings of the universe, as well as how they suggest connections across cultures.