Jared Tso is one of the exciting young Native potters working today.  His new show, “History Became Legend.  Legend Became Myth” is a series of clay helmets inspired by the Lord of the Rings.  Jared grew up making his own helmets out of cardboard!  As Jared noted, “en-year-old Jared never thought he would be a full-time potter, let alone have a “Lord of the Rings” helmet-inspired show!   My mom had a rule when I was a kid she wouldn’t buy me any toy weapons. My imagination was unlimited and so I made them out of cardboard.”.

This piece is entitled, “A Fallen King“.   It is made from micaceous clay and traditionally fired. The back is covered in pinon pitch and there is bailing and barbed wire.

Jared said of this piece:

“This piece is about the most powerful foe in Lord of the Rings.  The helmet is made from micaceous clay with a white slip and pinon pitch on the back, along with bailing and barbed wire.  The significance of this piece is how barbed wire is the binding act in creating a division of space and land.  In the West, barbed wire is a physical delineation of space and re-arranged the landscape.  It is a technology of separation.  It is about the separation and division of people and the natural flow of the world.”

The piece is signed on the bottom, “Jared Tso”.  

“’ History became Legend.  Legend Became Myth” is a response to both the history and myths that are told about US expansion into the West.  The idea of Manifest Destiny is not only political but also an idea physically depicted in art.  Western landscape paintings or sculptures became a visual embodiment of the stereotypes of the period, with Native Americans often depicted as “the hostile” in contrast to the settlers.  It is not just in art, but this mythos can also be seen in maps, showing the increasing expansion of territory from East to West.  It is romanticized as both peaceful and divinely inspired.  Of course, this expansion came at the cost of the erasure of Native cultures and the destruction of millions of Native lives.”

“I have used the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings Trilogy as a source of inspiration for these clay helmets.  They are a physical depiction of the story I want to tell.  In his books, Tolkien depicts a similar movement of East to West.   To me, in his books, the War of Ring reads like a post-apocalyptic story. Cities like Gondor or the world of the Elves are all diminished by the expansion of “evil”.  They become a fraction of their previous glory.  For us, Native Americans living today, we have already gone through our apocalypse and survived.  We are still here and ready to face what is to come.”   Jared Tso  2023