Marie Watt: Land Stitches Water Sky

The exhibition explores steel and glass—materials integral to Western Pennsylvania’s industrial history—through Watt’s Indigenous perspective as a Seneca Nation citizen with German-Scot ancestry. The exhibition presents sculptures shaped by community collaboration, encouraging visitors to reflect on the layered histories and personal memories embedded in familiar materials. For over a decade, Marie Watt has worked with steel I-beams, inspired by their connection to Haudenosaunee ironworkers, known as “Skywalkers”, who contributed to the construction of iconic landmarks in Manhattan and other urban areas. In preparing for this exhibition, Watt researched the history and contemporary practices of steel and glass production in Pittsburgh. Steel, one of the world’s most recycled materials, carries the legacy of past generations into the present and future, paralleling Watt’s use of blankets as symbols of ongoing stories and human connectedness.