The Quiet Room (English)

Heather George, Judi Henhawk-Sault, Jai King Green, Dawn Martin Hill, Trama Textile Women’s Collective, 2023

Installation Images

Guided Tactile Descriptions

Scent Boxes

A collection of four small round containers with swivel lids, containing traditional plant medicines, sit on a podium. The containers are placed in a row attached to the podium with retractable wire. They are about the size of a squat water glass and are made of blonde wood. Inside of the containers from our left to right, are little mesh satchels of dark green flaky cedar, reddish brown tobacco leaves, thin light green strands of sweet grass, and light blue grey curled sage leaves. The wood of the containers is a light sand color with stripes of very thin slightly darker brown lines. The wood is smooth to the touch and the edges have been rounded. To open a container, swivel the lid clockwise and it will slide open and remain attached. You are invited to smell the cedar, tobacco, sweet grass, and sage.

Installation Details

Relax, reflect, and ground yourself in Quiet Room.

In this space, we invite you to listen to the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address (or the Words That Come Before All Else). It is an expression of gratitude for all living and natural elements of creation that continues to sustain us. Experience the water from the fountain tumbling through clay, by Judie Henhawk-Sault, echoing the tears we shed for the lives disrupted and ended by the pandemic. Smell the traditional medicines (sage, cedar and sweetgrass, tobacco) placed in scent boxes that bring us back to the earth.

This is an interactive space. You are encouraged to touch, smell, release, and listen.

About the Artist

A person with half their hair shaved and medium light skin tone. A person with half their brown hair shaved and medium light skin tone wearing a black dress and long pink and gray earrings. They have heavy black eyeliner and smile at us slightly.