Starting today, I’m going to highlight individually some of my favorite little pieces that, to this point, have been shown here only collectively. I am not taking them in any particular order, despite the symbolism attached; rather, I’ll explore them in whatever order they seem to demand my attention. Of the half-dozen items that this particular collection in miniature comprises, we begin with perhaps the simplest one, but also the one that speaks to me the most.
In Wings’s one-man show earlier this year, the silverwork portion of the exhibition was offered in specific subgroupings: pieces that were related to each other, whether by serendipity or by design; some clearly intended to coordinate with each other, others whose connections were counterintuitive. Each silverwork group was related in some way to an entry on the photography portion of the show, sharing a name and particular symbolic qualities.
Among them were a series of six delicate bangle bracelets, each featuring different patterns and gemstones, yet clearly of a piece. They were arrayed, both in the exhibit and here on the site, together, under the heading Emergence, and collectively named Gifts:
Every day, when we ascend the ladder into the light, we enact again our emergence, how we came to be upon this beautiful earth. Our emergence, midwifed by the spirits of earth and sky, and by the spirits of the waters, who bless and protect us to this day.
Every day, we arise into the gifts of this world. On our best days, we do so bearing gifts of thanks in return.
Their photographic counterpart in the show was the final image: Emergence, an archetypal image of the Pueblo, but more, of the People themselves. In one spare and simple image, nothing more than a pine ladder propped against the wall of an ancient adobe village home, arising out of the darkness into the golden light beneath a turquoise sky, he encapsulated the people’s existential journey. Its focus was on the blessings given to the people in the act of emergence.
Gifts, its tangible counterpart, created its own metaphorical ladder reaching upward. In spirit, however, it focused on the other side of the journey upward: the obligations of thanksgiving, of generosity of spirit, that accompany that journey, and that must be a part of our ascendance into the light.
As a practical matter, when the bangles in this series were arrayed across the deer antler for display, there was no particular conscious thought given to their order. They were simply aggregated and allowed to fall randomly as they would. Strangely — or perhaps not — they seemed to find their own logical order.
Today’s featured piece is the second from the top; in the terms of the symbolic motif, it’s the penultimate rung on the ladder. It’s appropriate: Accented with precious stones that are themselves products of transformation brought about by extreme external pressures, it embodies the idea that to ascend, to emerge, to live and dance fully in the light, we, too, must transform. If we survive the stresses of the journey, if we adapt and evolve and grow, we will become something beautiful in spirit and in fact.
Whether these ideas were fully formed in Wings’s mind when he chose the elements that would make up this piece, I don’t know. I suspect, as so often happens with his art, that they likewise emerged, organically, during its creation, assuming the form and shape and identity they were always meant to embody. But the the fact that he chose this combination speaks to me at a deeply symbolic level.
Hematite. Highly polished here, yet on the color spectrum, nevertheless and dull and seemingly ordinary gray. Unsurprising: It’s an iron oxide, mined as iron ore. [There is also a form of hematite that is red in color; in some ancient cultures, it was used as chalk for writing, and women used its powder form as rouge for their cheeks.] It is formed within naturally-occurring iron deposits, as a result of the stresses of eons in standing water or hot springs, or, absent the presence of water, of the extremes of volcanic activity. Once mined, the hard, dark gray mineral, although brittle, can be cut and polished to a nearly mirror-like finish.
It’s a beautiful stone, wholly of the earth, yet formed and tempered variously by water and fire.
And regardless of shine, it remains a dark-colored stone, an earth tone, one at home in the dimness of the lower regions where we begin our journey.
I think it’s no accident that, alone among all of the bracelets in this collection, he chose a perfectly plain sterling silver round wire to serve as the bangle itself. When undergoing real transformation, adornments, things, become a distraction. More, as the journey progresses, they become unnecessary: Part of the process of emergence exists in recognizing that what one needs is among what is already provided; attempting to hoard and carry things merely weights one down with excess baggage and hinders progress.
And so, the hematite is placed on a fine plain sterling band, no distractions, no diversions. At a modest distance around the top of the slender hoop is one more stopping point, one marked by amber.
Amber is likewise a transformative substance in its own right. It’s not really even a stone, although we regard it as one. But as we learned in grade school science, it’s tree resin, hardened over millennia. Once in a while, we’ll see a piece that flowed over and around something yet alive, a plant or an insect, captured and encapsulated in its present form for eternity. At that moment of encapsulation, the resin is soft and mobile, wholly unsuited to the decorative uses we find for it today. But under the pressures of extreme heat in the crucible of time, the resin hardens, solidifies, clarifies, and becomes something that manifests very differently: small droplets of the sun itself, glowing with its brilliant golden light.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a piece that so perfectly captures the journey: from the earth, deep within, in the dull and dark regions, upward, directly into the warmth and light of Father Sun.
On a dawn such as this, when they whole sky is hematite and passing storms leave their tears upon the earth, it’s a useful reminder that the light is there, if just beyond our sight at the moment. If we continue our journey and keep to the path, just as the day itself will transform and the sun emerge from beneath the clouds, so, too, shall we: out of the shadows, into the light.
~ Aji
Transformation bangle bracelet: sterling silver; hematite; amber. $325 + shipping, handling, and insurance.
