Artifacts

A riverbed on the Narmada, where the water does the polishing. Antique artifacts and tribal art from across the world begin there, with Narmada River lingams polished smooth by the current, and go on to Chinese bronze lu censers, Nepalese figures of Garuda, Indian brass tikka boxes and oil lamps, Mao-era lapel pins from the Cultural Revolution. Roman glass flasks carry the iridescence of centuries underground; Chancay, Colima and Nayarit funerary figures come from the Andes and West Mexico; Asmat carving from the south coast of New Guinea. West Africa speaks through Dogon iron, Baule blolo spirit-spouse figures, Djenne equestrian bronzes and the terra cotta heads of the Koma of northern Ghana, and Ethiopia through Coptic cross amulets and Gurage house posts.

Oxidized bronze, hand-forged iron, quartz crystal, stone, glass: most of it nineteenth and twentieth century. A row of small bronzes along a library shelf. Weight and memory, in a small footprint.