Companion Species was a new focus exhibition and collaborative project that took inspiration from the recent Crystal Bridges acquisition, Companion Species (Speech Bubble) by Marie Watt (Seneca). In the spirit of Watt, who embraces community and connectedness at the heart of her artwork, the exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Museum of Native American History (MONAH) in Bentonville, and was presented across the two museum sites.

Watt’s monumental textile was created through community sewing circles across Northwest Arkansas and in Portland, Oregon and Honolulu, Hawaii in 2018 and 2019. Words such as neighbor, companion, hate, mother, and brother are rendered in unique stitches reflecting the hands of the many contributors of the sewing circles. The words draw attention to relatedness, and also come from the Marvin Gaye song “What’s Going On,” penned by Gaye, Renaldo Benson and Al Cleveland in 1969 in response to racial violence. In both cases, familial terms like “mother” and “brother” are not used solely to indicate biological awareness, but to extend to all humans, and in Iroquois teaching, to animals and the environment as well.