Companion Species: Ferocious Mother and Canis Familiaris

Companion Species: Ferocious Mother and Canis Familiaris is a piece commissioned by the Block Museum of Art for a 2017 exhibition titled If You Remember, I’ll Remember, curated by Janet Dees. The exhibition explored civil rights themes of 19th- and 20th-century North America. Companion Species was created on-site with two sewing circles. Watt’s project received over 200 participants, which resulted in a final piece that turned out to be significantly larger than intended. Companion Species is a strong continuation of Watt’s interests in interspecies relations and with Seneca and Iroquois teachings that animals are our first teachers and we are all related. This work is closely tied to the She-wolf subject (prevalent in Watt’s entire body of work around this time) as symbolic of not only a mother-nature figure, but also as a balance of relations to our ecosystem. The community created through the sewing circles to create a larger work is also a reflection of that ecosystem. Visually, the colors are joyful and vibrant. There is a sense of celebration and devotion, and of course the individuality that is brought out from the different stitching—from practiced sewers to beginners and children—is delightful to see.