Objects & Vessels Artifacts

Objects and vessels begin as practical things: something to pour from, burn in, bury with the dead. Time does the rest.

These artifacts come from China, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Mexico and West and East Africa, made for the altar, the kitchen and the grave. Himalayan bronze figures of Garuda, Indian pilgrimage figures of Ganesh, singing bowls and kendi water vessels from Southeast Asia sit with archaic Chinese bi discs, trade ceramics raised from Java Sea shipwrecks, white Makrana marble from the quarries of the Taj Mahal and Narmada River lingams polished smooth by water. From Africa come Baule blolo spirit-spouse figures, Koma and Bura terra cotta, Zulu ukhamba beer vessels and Ethiopian milk jugs mended with native repairs.

Oxidized bronze, burnished earthenware, celadon crackle, wood worn glossy by hands.

A Koma head on a travertine plinth has the stillness of something long buried. Quite so.