Ketchikan (Furnishing Fabric)

Designer Ben Rose based this textile on formline art made by Tlingit communities in Ketchikan, Alaska, south of Juneau. Rose sought out patterns that audiences in other parts of the United States might have been less familiar with. He then transformed them into fabrics that could be used widely in furnishings and fashion. Because these motifs were appropriated by a non-Native artist for non-Native use, they became divorced from their rich meanings and histories in Indigenous communities. Here, Rose may have been inspired by objects similar to this làkt or bentwood box by James Johnson (Tlingit, Ch’áak’Dakl’aweidi Clan).