Neptune's newest work comes full circle as it finds a home at the Hood Museum.
2024-16_1_resized.jpg
In 2021, during Dartmouth's Annual Powwow and again in 2022, during a Community Day to celebrate the opening of the Hood Museum's traveling exhibition Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala, Neptune offered museum visitors a rare glimpse into their artistic process. They started by stripping the bark of a black ash tree, harvested from the Dartmouth Organic Farm, followed by hours of pounding the logs in order to peel wafer-thin layers and create splints. Those layers marked the beginnings of the Hood Museum's recent acquisition When spirit speaks (you listen) (2021–23), and is the first work by the artist acquired by the museum.
Geo Soctomah Neptune (Passamaquoddy, based in Indian Township, ME) is a skilled basket maker who mastered the art form with the help of their grandmother, Molly Neptune Parker, whose works Acorn Basket (2008) and Flower Basket (2008) are in the Hood Museum's collection. With Parker's guidance, Neptune learned the artistic practice of using ash and sweetgrass to weave vibrant patterns that reflect the economic, cultural, and spiritual life of Wabanaki communities. When spirit speaks (you listen) is a personal work that pays homage to their grandmother and their own personal and artistic growth through the depiction of a figure elegantly draped in tanned hide and adorned in glass beads, conch shell beads, freshwater pearls, and stick pearls atop a basket woven in warm reds, oranges, and purples. Commanding the attention of the viewer, the figure wears a mask resembling an owl and holds a fan of duck feathers. This work seamlessly fuses culturally-informed techniques and contemporary practices with Neptune's unique personal style. Geo Neptune, a Dartmouth '10, frequently visits the campus to speak at Native American and Indigenous Studies classes, join student events, and participate in Hood Museum programming. After a decade of partnership, the Hood Museum is thrilled to finally welcome their work into the collection made possible by the generosity of Judith Liff and Joseph N. Barker '66.
rs68184_162a5511_resized.jpg
