Personal Aesthetics Essay: April 6, 2013
I am obsessively drawn to reliquaries. Religion was not emphasized in my childhood, and I do not consider myself a religious person now, so my obsession with these sacred objects has been somewhat confusing to me as an artist. I’ve contemplated this interest heavily over the past three years, and I have come to the conclusion that I am not drawn to reliquaries for their religious aspect, but rather for their evocative qualities.
Reliquaries both house and elicit memory from objects. Traditionally, they are highly revered because of their association to saints and other important religious figures. However, I am instead drawn to them for the inherent devotion and reverence that they embody. The reliquary pictured is one that I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a recent trip to New York City. It is Italian, dating to the 14th – 15th century. In the translucent rock crystal portion lies a tooth, supposedly belonging to Mary Magdalene.
In general, I am drawn to the reliquary’s most essential attribute – the devotional containment of something precious. They are beautifully ornate structures built around nothing but a shard, a fragment, of something referencing a religiously significant person or saint. Common examples of relics include strips of cloth, slivers of wood from the cross, or bones supposedly belonging to saints. It is this idea of purposeful, protective cherishing that endlessly intrigues me and drives my personal artwork - encapsulating the memory of a person in an object and then enshrining the object.
Relics are capable of capturing the ineffable – crystallizing, highlighting, and protecting the essential fragment of a remembered whole. In my recent work, I strive to create spaces that at once display and protect important objects that embody specific people or memories. My versions of reliquaries became spaces in which to house significant objects, mainly recalling family members and childhood memories. Idyllic. Nostalgic. Comforting. Reliquaries fascinate me; enshrining seemingly mundane objects requires such care and devotion. Reverence, cherishing, and memory are essential qualities of reliquaries and are evocative qualities that I seek to infuse into my own work.
Reliquaries both house and elicit memory from objects. Traditionally, they are highly revered because of their association to saints and other important religious figures. However, I am instead drawn to them for the inherent devotion and reverence that they embody. The reliquary pictured is one that I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a recent trip to New York City. It is Italian, dating to the 14th – 15th century. In the translucent rock crystal portion lies a tooth, supposedly belonging to Mary Magdalene.
In general, I am drawn to the reliquary’s most essential attribute – the devotional containment of something precious. They are beautifully ornate structures built around nothing but a shard, a fragment, of something referencing a religiously significant person or saint. Common examples of relics include strips of cloth, slivers of wood from the cross, or bones supposedly belonging to saints. It is this idea of purposeful, protective cherishing that endlessly intrigues me and drives my personal artwork - encapsulating the memory of a person in an object and then enshrining the object.
Relics are capable of capturing the ineffable – crystallizing, highlighting, and protecting the essential fragment of a remembered whole. In my recent work, I strive to create spaces that at once display and protect important objects that embody specific people or memories. My versions of reliquaries became spaces in which to house significant objects, mainly recalling family members and childhood memories. Idyllic. Nostalgic. Comforting. Reliquaries fascinate me; enshrining seemingly mundane objects requires such care and devotion. Reverence, cherishing, and memory are essential qualities of reliquaries and are evocative qualities that I seek to infuse into my own work.