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, “The Rescuer“.   It is made from navie clay and is slipped with white and red clay. It is stone-polished and traditionally fired. The back half has pinon pitch.

Jared said of this piece:

“This piece was made in response to a large marble sculpture called “The Rescue” that was in the US capitol building from 1853-1958.  It depicted a scene where a settler child and mother were attacked by a Native person and a settler man was saving the day.  To me, this is a classic example in art of Natives being depicted as “hostiles” and not defenders of their home.”

The piece is signed on the bottom, “Jared Tso”.  A museum mount can be made for this piece for an additional cost. 

“’ 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