womens beyond border logo

BOXES beyond borders

Category: Clay

The Wells of the Virgins

The mysteries of Eleusis, is the theme I have been working on since 1992.  It is about a long research I have been doing on forgotten rites and their symbolism.  An endeavor based on the writings of ancients and also of contemporaries on Greek art. The fertility of the earth-womb and children’s tomb symbolized by the well, which encloses the water of life, the water that purifies, but also fecunds, is inseparable from the earth.  The archetypal image of the mother/daughter, Demeter and Persephone as identical characters.  As well as Persephone’s ravishment by Hades, refers to the sexual act and to marriage.  Finally, its descent and raising represent death and resurrection.  Always assumed, the unknown rites have to be imagined…

Being

My box represents the three aspects of being. The lower section shows bones and clay through glass, representing the transient nature of the human body- physical being. On the box itself I drew my doodles and ancient Irish symbols representing the collective unconscious of mental being. Finally, the angel on top represents the spiritual being.

Representation of a Population

Culver City Highschool. Age 12.

My box is a representation of my population, African Americans. Throughout history, my people always had something to represent. From the motherland to this present day we have represented life, struggle, triumph, and perseverance. But as we begin a new generation, what do we have to represent now? What do we have to show our future, besides being a statistic?

The Women’s World

Mother Earth

Deep within her there is life.
She is encircled by the web of life.
It is no mistake that earth is a “she”
for all that grows does so because of her.
We are the children of this mother.
We are all connected to the earth and one another
through this mystical experience we call life.

Song Heartfelt

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Nita Song, PRESIDENT/COO OF IW GROUP, ASIAN AMERICAN ADVERTISING AGENCY and Ann Enkoji, ARTIST

The starting point of this sculpture began when I asked Nita about pivotal moments in her life and she began to share the stories that created the themes for the box:

— moving with her family to the US to live in Alabama with her aunt
— pinching a young playmate until he broke her nose with a brick
— taking that injury and wearing it as an emblem of her character
— delivering her first child, weighing in at 10 pounds
— her two children’s artwork
— deepening her family and community relationships, especially with her mother
— and her love of the soil

Clay became the natural connection between my art and Nita’s life when she said: “… soil represents who I am. Soil is fertile, nutrient rich and stimulates growth.”

The Key and the Walnut

Today the box arrived in the morning.  What will I put in?  Hopefully everything, or even better: The best.  Before I start working I’ll make an extra walk through the garden, maybe I’ll be able to think of a more concise way of what I want to do because ‘the best’ is a kind of program, a wish, not an image.  In any case, I’ll take the box with me, just like the little key for the upper garden.  This garden begins behind the very romantic door that we once discovered hidden under a thick layer of ivy.  Then we also discovered cannonballs made out of stone, old fashioned roses, wild orchids and rare lilies.  All of which we probably owe to the nuns who had owned this garden.  There also is an old, old walnut tree.  I  think of the history of the garden first owned by knights and later by the nuns.  Since when do gardens exist in general?  Looking at this carefully it seems that the history of gardens is very old as the history of mankind.  Opening the door, I am thinking of PARADISE, but my small, ordinary key brings me back into reality.  It cannot be compared to the masterpieces that we usually see on old pictures in the hands of St. Peter.  I feel a little sorry looking down at my machine-made product.  But, on the other hand, it is important to know what a key can do, not what it looks like.

Creation

This piece of art represents a woman with a steadfast and proud posture. She sits and carries in her lap the continuity of life: her own children. Her face reads of dignity. She carries on her head a pot with a dove: the symbol of love and peace. She creates and conveys life, pride and peace.
 
Medium: clay mixed with copper oxide, cobalt oxide, magnesium oxide, iron oxide and some kaolin as well as a wooden box

Simulacra

Every little treasure has a message inside…..

SIMULACRA is the title I have chosen for my work in aluminum realized using the original box as a model for the casting. I engraved the cover of the box (previously covered with terra-cotta) with stylized signs, although the meaning of this work is not to be understood in these signs.

SIMULACRA (in the Latin larger sense means: copy, effigy, sculpture…) plays a role of criticism to the idea of original (represented by the original wooden box I received) and “copy” (in the way the original one is cast).

You may ask yourself which one has to be considered the original between the two: the two boxes having to be exhibited always together!

I play too with the idea of container and content implicit in the fact that the object is a box.

Finally the title SIMULACRA allows you to think about the platonic concept of mimesis (Art as imitation, in a larger sense), this is not to provide a solution but to push the viewer to think about these matters.