OXFORD, Miss. – Generations of Alaska’s Yup’ik people have carved beautifully expressive masks from wood, stained with clays and decorated with feathers, hides, beads and teeth for their traditional dances and ceremonies.
A form of stage prop, the masks were special but not sacred, and their appearances would shift as dancers strived to transport themselves to the spirit world. Marker III, a new sculpture on display at the University of Mississippi Museum, aims to embody that magnificence.
“The Yup’ik people are indigenous to Western Alaska,” said sculptor Michael Williams. “In their mask making, they use the offset oculus as a representation of a portal to the spirit world or a place of transcendence.”
“In Marker III, the offset oculus entices the viewer to peer through the hole, eliciting the idea of transcendence and connection to the natural world.”
A professor of sculpture at Nicholls State University in Louisiana, Williams lived in Fairbanks for eight years, exploring the vast Alaskan wilderness, which he used as inspiration for his work.
“Marker III is one of a series of four sculptures inspired by my trips to the Gillam Glacier in the Alaska Range,” he said. “Marker III is just that – a marker. It can mark a time, a place or an experience.”
The monumental outdoor sculpture is located outside the University Museum through July. The piece not only adds to, but also fills a gap in the community’s thriving visual arts culture, said William Andrews, museum director.
“Outdoor sculpture is an art concept distinctly separate from statuary and independent monuments, where the goal to memorialize an event is primary,” Andrews said. “Outdoor sculpture creates a gallery of the outdoor environment itself and exists as an expression of the visual artist.”
The University Museum presents contemporary work alongside historic art and artifacts so that viewers can experience both, and learn from the juxtaposition of the two, Andrews said.
A Virginia native, Williams earned a bachelor’s of fine arts from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in 2003. He relocated to Baton Rouge, earning his master’s of fine art from Louisiana State University in 2008. He lives in Thibodaux, La., where he continues his explorations through the swamps of the Atchafalaya basin and the barrier islands of the Gulf Coast.
For more information on the UM Museum, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/