WARI ANDEAN EXHIBITION
A good friend and I went to this exhibition in Cleveland , The Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio.
We arrive in the center of Cleveland and our hotel the Glidden House. We were surprised by all the interesting contemporary architecture that surrounded us and that we could walk to with in a few blocks of our hotel. The Art Museum has just opened their now wing and restaurant which is in the new spacious atrium. For me the show was superb and the lecture that we attended that night by Susan Bergh was interesting. As you can see above the pottery was exceptional. Shown here is a chicha vessel ( sacred drink, native corn beer) from which people would be served during feasting rituals.
The textiles were to die for and sometimes they did! Here is one of the main deities woven in an abstracted manner he Staff God.
The next day I went back to the exhibition alone. Just to sit and absorb all that was there. As I looked at this textile and its' abstraction of the Staff God I felt that this one in particular was about transformation. From my Shamanic experiences in Peru I felt that this textile was about moving from one state of being to another. It was not just an aesthetic choice of the weaver but could be read on one level as the movement from one reality to another. As this was a common practice among shamans of all cultures. Not only could this be read on the level of depicting the deity but could be read on many different complex levels and I even thought that each small design unit could carry a meaning or a reenforcing meaning , a deeper meaning of the deity and its place in the culture.
I hope that who ever reads this can go to this exhibition it well worth the trip and opens new thoughts on the little known Wari culture of ancient Peru.
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