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Citizens of the World Series Some of the images of ethnicity ......These sculptures are my effort to pay tribute to cultural individuality and to bring attention to specific ethnic groups. The reality for many small clusters of people is that they struggle to maintain the unique quality of their lives as they jockey to survive and to find a place in the world. .....On a long journey on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, after the fall of the USSR in 1991, it was clear that one outcome of the previous seven decades had been homogenization. During the Soviet period, individual cultures were not tolerated. Four years later, the Buryats, the indigenous peoples around Lake Baikal , had begun to revive their cultural patterns and to teach them to their young. Their story is hardly unique. Consider the plight of the Native Americans, the Ainu, and various Tibetan groups, to name a few. Humans are overwhelming the planet, and concurrently ethnic groups are being diluted or lost for many reasons. Some people want to absorb into a different culture. Others have mandates forced upon them by governments or conquerors. Some groups disappear with habitat destruction, genocide, or famine and disease. .....The identifying specifics that define a culture are reflections of people's lives and their efforts to survive on their own plot of Earth. For some the patterns that play out in other people's lives are exotic, foreign and interesting, while other people are threatened by them. Usually things that threaten us dissipate with understanding. My wish is that with exposure and education we could learn to appreciate the enormous diversity of people, recognize our similarities, make space for us all, and celebrate the details that make us different from each other. Often those details are stunning artistically. The constant skin color of the Himba who daily rub their bodies with ochre and butterfat is beautiful, while it protects them from the intense sun and insects in their desert. The fun and colorful sculpture from Oaxaca , Mexico has a spiritual function, but cannot outdo the intricate embroidery embellishing clothing from the same region. Our familiar New England stone walls are stunning reflections of our culture's provision for individual ownership. The songs and dances of the Buryats are strong and engaging, in some instances quite similar to dances of Native Americans, all done with purpose. Rana Tharu fishing nets are elegant as are the same from Lake Patzcuaro, half a world away, all ethereal butterfly-shapes to feed people. Hmong embroidery from Vietnam is second to none and similar to Panamanian work. The list is endless. .....The visual highlights may catch our attention, but the hard work is to learn about and to appreciate the diversity that humans exhibit worldwide. I sculpt as I learn about groups of people. The process underlines that in clay as in life, all people start out the same. |
