On Wednesday, we explored Wings’s conceptualization of sacred space through the lens of his latest silverwork (work that has since sold; sorry, folks).
It’s not a new theme for him; indeed, it’s been one of the common threads woven throughout his entire body of work for the duration of his career as an artist. We talked a little bit about why that is the case in our #ThrowbackThursday post — how, for him, the sacred is inseparable from the mundane, because the two are merely differing aspects of the same whole.
As I noted then, it’s a theme that formed the basis of his one-man show a year ago, one that appeared consistently in both the photography and the silverwork in that collection — and in the many collections in miniature that, taken together, formed the whole of the latter. Two photos included in it (both now also sold) were paired together to show the disconnect between contemporary conceptions of sacred space, imposed from without, and his own fully internalized, fully immanent understanding of what that space means within the context of his identity, his culture, his history. Both showed images of the stepped and whitewashed arch in the courtyard wall that serves as the entry to the mission church in the old village, one up close, one at a slight distance . . . but with a twist: Both are shown from the vantage point completely opposite to the usual view, from the inner side of the arch looking outward, away from the church and toward what the very title of one photo identified as “the real sacred space.” [I wrote about both photos and their imagery separately, as well; you can find those explorations here and here.]
In his show, the photography component served as the guide, the outline, the definitional boundaries that constructive the narrative for the entire exhibit. Its silverwork counterpart was divided into collections in miniature, groupings of pieces whose imagery corresponded in some way to the imagery of the photography. The counterpart to the photo entitled The Real Sacred Space was a three-item collection of the same name, rendered in sterling silver and lapis lazuli: cuff bracelet, solitaire ring, and earrings (the earrings sold last year; we’ll look at the ring in tomorrow’s post).
I chose the items from this collection that remain in inventory as this weekend’s featured pieces by Wings for two reasons: In visual terms, of course, the lapis material motif coordinates perfectly with Wednesday’s showpiece. But more than that, the design of these works is of a piece, in substance and symbolism, with that of the Lake Spirit necklace we bought you on three days ago. Today, it’s the cuff bracelet; from its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
We walk in two worlds, maintaining our connection to our own world and to the real sacred space of our traditions. This space is tangible, intangible, and wholly spiritual: the space that lives forever in our hearts and spirits and ancestral memory. This cuff manifests this space in all its forms. The magical, mysterious lapis cabochon, drawn from the Earth and the color of our sacred waters, rests atop the band in a scalloped bezel trimmed in twisted silver. The sky symbols that are the harbingers of rain and other blessings, of life in the desert, trace the center and edges of the cuff. And the thunderhead symbols are brought together, conjoined in an ancient pattern that evokes the steps to the sacred space of our kiva.
Sterling silver; lapis lazuli
$775 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a series of old patterns, old symbols as the those found on Wednesday’s featured piece, and the tell the same stories, teach the same lessons: of this land and its waters and the rain that falls from the sky; of the elements that sustain life in this place; of the need to respect their powers and exist in harmony with them; of how, here, daily life in this ancestral place is daily lived in sacred space.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
