On Wednesday, we looked at motifs of vision and sight, seen through the lens of Wings’s latest work. The piece itself was the very embodiment of vision: of the ability to understand that one’s perception changes as one’s perspective changes. After all, it began with a very different look in mind, but as he worked his way through the creation process, its true intended form came clear, and he altered his approach accordingly.
The symbolism of visions — of dreams and wisdom and the words of Spirit itself — has always flowed through the larger body of Wings’s work. It’s a dynamic in which he believes deeply, one that has informed his art and work as vocation and avocation, one that manifests in his daily life.
It’s a symbolism that manifests in today’s featured piece, as well. More than that, it is the piece: the design integrates the motif fully into the body and identity of the work. From its description in the Rings Gallery:
Our stories, often seemingly small and very personal, offer a window into larger lessons for our way of living — as individuals, and as a people. Those who came before us used ancient symbols to inscribe these stories on our surfaces and spaces, to remind us how to live and grow and prosper. The Eye of Spirit is one such symbol, the foundation of countless stories and lessons about the importance of a life lived under its protection, a sign of wisdom and of visions granted to mortals by Spirit. Here, the Eye repeats itself along the length of this simple silver band; centered between two hand-scored lines, the repetition magnifies its power.
Sterling silver
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If you compare the imagery in this piece with that used in the one we featured here on Wednesday, you’ll notice differences in the Eye of Spirit design. It’s not unusual; the symbology and iconography of indigenous cultures the world over shows wide variation in the details within those cultures, even when the essential pattern represents the same concept. In Wednesdays piece, the same diamond shape that forms the Eye itself was bisected by two geometric shapes meeting in the center, giving it the impression of blinking, of immediate expression, perhaps of changes in the pupil in response to changes in the light. In today’s piece, the Eye is centered by a plain raised oval, evoking images of an eye wide open, all-seeing, eternally watchful. Neither is symbolically superior to the other; as with human eyes, they are simply different manifestations of the same organ as it performs different functions.
In both instances, the repeating row of Eyes of Spirit is centered between two matching rows of other sorts. On Wednesday, the lines were composed of crescent patterns evoking rising sun and setting moon; here, they again mirror each other, but in the form of perfectly straight lines — perhaps an evoking of the stasis of midday and midnight.
The two pieces were not created to match, of course, nor even in tandem. Today’s featured piece was one that Wings created a little over a year ago, specifically for his then-upcoming one-man show. Their complementarity is a happy accident of sorts: serendipity and synchronicity.
Perhaps, one might even say, a result of the guiding vision of Spirit’s Eye.
~ Aji
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