Pahuk: Site

Pahuk: Site signals the beginning of a new body of work for me. This new work has origins in Pawnee folklore like some of my previous work, but focuses on the landforms found in the stories. Two major influences have been Pawnee Hero Stories and Folktales, by George Bird Grinnell and Wisdom Sits in Places, By Keith Basso. The first book, published in 1909, George Bird Grinnell records the oral tradition of Pawnee story telling. Told around campfires as a means of entertainment and education, the landscape plays an important role in every story. In Wisdom Sits in Places, Basso archives the importance of story tied to a specific place among the Apache people. The common thread between the two books, and among tribal nations of North America, is how oral tradition is inherently tied to the surrounding landscape. Another underlying theme in both books is the centrality of water and its sacred nature.

Based on the contours of the Platte River in Nebraska, the title refers to a sacred site for the Pawnee Nation found along the banks of the Platte. Pahuk is one of five places where animals, or Nahurac, dwelled. The animals that lived in these sites were conferred miraculous powers by Tirawa, or Great Spirit. The Nahurac dwelling at Pahuk were considered the most powerful of all the animals dwelling at these sites.

The form is the extruded contours of the Platte river near Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska, the site of Pahuk. Starting with a digital model, a positive was fabricated to scale in foam. That positive form was then invested in plaster. The resulting plaster was used to make a wax positive that could be refined to the final form. The wax positive was then used to make a final mold of plaster and silica, which was used to cast the glass, giving the final form seen in the picture.

I have been dreaming of this piece for the past five years. I initially conceived of it during my last year of architecture school. Working in the digital fabrication lab part-time during school, I was hoping to sneak in after hours and mill the form on the school’s cnc machine. Well, time ran out, graduation passed, and it wasn’t until after a move to Seattle and some serious networking that I finally found a shop that could do the job. Then the task was to find a glass studio that had the capacity to make the casting. Because of the scale of the piece, that was no small task. Again, it took a lot of networking and late nights of doing research online. Finally, I came across a place in Yucca Valley, California that specializes in such things. The Yucca Valley Material Lab was a gift from heaven. Not only could they cast the glass, but they were able to build a custom crate for it so I could safely have it shipped to it’s destination in Santa Fe.

Thank you Heidi and the Yucca Valley Material Lab crew for all of your help on this project. I’m really looking forward to working with you in the coming years. Also, I received a development grant from s'gʷi gʷi ʔ altxʷ: House of Welcome at the Evergreen State College. That money gave me a workable budget for the project (frankly, it wouldn’t have happened without it) and I am forever grateful for their generosity.

When I was a painter..........

I suppose I would still consider myself a painter, I just never find the time to dive back into the discipline. Years ago I dedicated nights and weekends to painting. I was free from real-life responsibilities at the time and was exercising my “extreme introvert” tendencies. (I was recently told that I have an extremely introverted personality)

I loved the time I was able to spend in front of the canvas. It’s a space of reflection and anonymity. The puzzles of the world can be clearly seen, debated, and put to rest in the eyes of the one standing before it. At the time, I felt that I was living a dual life in the glass studio and in front of the canvas. One was full of immediate gratification, and the other was developing, evolving, moving at the pace of the changing seasons.

I hope to return to painting one day. I was enamored with Caravaggio, and I want to get back to his light. There was a truth in his canvases that I haven’t seen anywhere else. His paintings have always given me a sense of hope, even when they’re full of blood and severed heads because of the light. It is the darkness of his paintings that makes his light so bright, so hopeful. Think of Judith Beheading Holofernes. It is a grim image: the last moment of consciousness for Holofernes who is in shock because of what is happening. Judith is at the edge of a freedom that comes only through a moment of extreme darkness, and then the ever perfect, glowing warm light.

When Stars Fell to Earth

The Skidi Pawnee lived along the banks of the Loup River in what is now central Nebraska. They are the people of my Grandfather, my “Upp’it”, as said in Pawnee.

Theirs was a universe of certainties, of rhythms followed for hundreds of years. They knew that each day was greeted by the appearance of the Morningstar, the father of the first human, a girl. Her mother, Eveningstar was perpetually chased across the heavens by her lover, Morningstar. They could see the arm of the Milkyway that defined the eternal procession of their ancestors to the land of “Tirawa”, or Great Spirit. Everything was understood, and everything came in its own time. The Universe spoke, every morning and every night. It came into their earthlodges and guided their earthly rhythms from generation to generation. It showed when to plant crops, when to hunt, when to build, and when to go into battle.

They were surrounded by a common granular matter, the silica that lined the riverbeds and flood plain. To them this silica was the remnant of fallen stars. The eternal material of the night sky flowed through the circulatory system of the land, and ultimately through their own ephemeral veins.

“When the Stars Came to Earth” recalls this universe, one that is still present but lives in relative obscurity under the surface. Crafted from molten silica, it shares material qualities with the lost universe it recalls. Modeled after the star maps that can be found in the Sacred Bundles of the Pawnee Medicine Man, it is meant to hold the viewer in suspension between the “eternities”, one modeled on a micro level, the other all-enveloping. It is not meant to be a commemoration of history or a longing for the past, but a documentation of what has always been and will forever be.

Just the beginning......

Well congratulations, you have found my website! Thank you for visiting. Let me introduce myself: My name is Brian Ray Barber (hence the name BRBD for Brian Ray Barber Design), I am a glassblower and architectural designer. I also draw and paint, as you’ll see on the site.

I am a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. I was born in Flint, Michigan and have lived all over the place. I currently live and work in Seattle, Washington.

I hope you enjoy the site! Check in frequently for updates because I will always be noodling, adding new work, and probably trying out new formats for the website. (Evolution is a constant)

Thanks again for visiting!