Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Hayashi Wilder, Emily Small, Jade Ichimura, and Renée Reizman pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
Zack Bent: Reliquary
Cannonball Arts, Seattle, WA
September 1, 2025–January 1, 2026
Upon entering the newly opened Cannonball Arts in downtown Seattle, I encountered what appears to be an immense rock. Stepped closer, and the illusion dissolved. It isn’t stone at all, but an angular structure pieced together from cedar panels, each stained stone gray. I circled it, noting its wooden edges. Then, a dusty pink ramp emerged like a tongue hanging out of a mouth. I thought: “Is this not-rock alive?” Curiosity pulled me inside despite the sign warning, “ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.”
The interior revealed a room lined with alcoves, each framing a single rock spotlighted from above. In the apse, a cushion invited me to sit at eye-level with one of the rocks while four others looked down upon me. The meaning settles in: Reliquary is a vessel for what is sacred. Here, the sacred is stone itself—earth revered, origins remembered, or perhaps simply a tender affection for rocks.
Reliquary, by Seattle-based artist Zach Bent, inaugurates Cannonball Arts’ Shelter Sculpture series: a program dedicated to commissioning installations that question the meanings of shelter and home. Like much of Bent’s practice, the work circles themes of home, family, and the quiet significance of the objects we choose to hold close.
Reflection: The home can be a sacred place for many. What personal belongings are sacred to you?
Energy Transitions
Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA
Oct 11, 2025–Jan 11, 2026
Energy is an omnipotent force that powers our daily lives. How often do you pause to consider the energy you consume? For many, energy is only truly felt in its absence—during an involuntary power outage that limits our energy usage or a deliberate reduction, like when we embark on a voluntary trip into the woods to reconnect with nature.
In La Conner, Washington, the Museum of Northwest Art presents Energy Transitions, an anthropological exhibition curated in collaboration with the Skagit Valley Clean Energy Alliance. Through a multimedia display, the show traces the evolution of humanity’s relationship with energy, from early reliance on fire and sunlight to the industrial dominance of coal and oil, and finally to today’s renewable sources like wind and solar. The exhibition charts how different energy technologies have risen, declined, and, at times, reemerged.
At a moment when historical knowledge faces erasure and the advancement of clean energy is threatened by funding cuts, Energy Transitions underscores the importance of remembering the cultural, social, and technological struggles that have shaped and informed our present.
Reflection: Where is energy used in your daily life, and what areas of your life don’t require any energy at all?