In the Afro-Brazilian religions and their mythology, the poet discovers what constitutes the very motor of poetic creation: magical, mythical thought that harms logical certitudes and the obvious principles of causality. The marvelous in the raw state is in tune there with daily life, myth is still fecund there as is magic-the common denominator uniting the wizard and the poet-still operates there at an unconscious level.
-‘When the Poet Meets the Ethnologist: The African Religions of Brazil’ from Catalog Benjamin Peret et les Amériques.
Animism is based on the belief that every living thing has a soul. Animism is a cultural baseline of spirituality linking all humanity together in a necessary awareness of being an active part of life on earth. Animism is not about Religion, but rather a free-form spiritual impulse of connectivity. It is about the human participation in Nature and Place on an intimate level. Historically we were another part of Nature and thus privy to its healing and destructive forces. Eating, birthing, treating illnesses and wounds, hunting, and coping with natural and unnatural death formed the matrix of our human journey and how we strive to stay in balance.
Though our roles in life transformed and diversified through time we always made some kind of art to comment on, engage with, or energize our lives. Much of this art expressed and still involves the human relationship with animism.
This is not shamanism. Animism provides the universe in which shamanism exists. Animism is the basis for universal spirituality, but real shamanism is very specific to the primary cultures it serves. We are all born potentially animistic, but we can only be recognized or initiated by certain specific cultural protocols into shamanism.
All artists can be animistic by nature or choice, but very few, if any, can be called actual shamans. Animism is not a process or performance of intention as art is, whereas shamanism is a learned and experienced series of protocols enabling the participant to enter a spirit or ancestral world to work to calm or retrieve displaced or unhappy souls as well as other profound healing services. Shamanism is a recording of the botanical history of local Place. Shamans learn to control their own processes in service to their community whether in real time or in an astral reality. This cannot be improvised by someone ignorant of or outside the wellsprings of traditional knowledge.
In our two previous exhibitions: Transcendants I and II, we were concerned with visionaries, spiritualists, mediums, seers and occultists who, because of their absence from the mainstream art world, were largely ghettoized from full recognition of their geniuses by the art world canon. In this new exhibition we take the discourse back to roots. Animism provides an umbrella under which can be seen art rising from basic spiritual roots necessitated by survival.
This exhibition begins to explore a wide variety of artworks, from animistic works by contemporary global non-mainstream visionary artists juxtaposed with actual artworks (primarily with masks) made by or for animists and shamans from Eskimo and Inuit, Indonesian, Siberian, Himalayan and other sources.
There will be work by artists, occultists and empathic beings who consciously make work driven by animistic observations and thinking. There will also be a feature of sculptures from the African diasporic cultures of the Americas including Jesse Aaron, Lloyd and Vincent Atherton, Bessie Harvey, and Woody Joseph. Also presented will be Vichai Chinalai, William Fields, Guyodo, Solange Knopf, Davood Koochaki, Stéphanie Denaes Lucas, Olga Karlíková, Franck K. Lundangi, M’onma, J.B. Murray, Bobby Ngainmijra, Shinichi Sawada, Imam Sucahyo, Andrey Tischenko, Gregory Van Maanen, Ghyslaine and Sylvain Staëlens, and Charles Willeto.
For further information please contact info@cavinmorris.com or call us at 212-226-3768.
Eskimo
Eskimo, Shaman's wand, 19th Century
Wood
19 x 2.5 x 2 inches
48.3 x 6.4 x 5.1 cm
Esk 3
Eskimo
Alaska, Eskimo, Shamanic doll,
St. Lawrence Island, Punuk Period, c. 500 - 1200 ACE
Wood
8.5 x 2.5 x 2 inches
21.6 x 6.4 x 5.1 cm
Esk 1
Eskimo
Eskimo, seated drummer figure, Upper Kushokwim River area, c. 1920's-1930's
Leather, wood, seal skin
6.5 x 6 x 7 inches
16.5 x 15.2 x 17.8 cm
Esk 2
Masks
Mexico, Region Unknown, Skull Mask, Mid 20th C.
Wood
9.5 x 5.5 x 2 inches
24.1 x 14 x 5.1 cm
M 578
Masks
Alaska, Eskimo, Shaman's Mask, Inviting mask to the Messenger Feast, c. 1880
Wood, feathers, bead
10 x 14 x 3.5 inches
25.4 x 35.6 x 8.9 cm
M 654
*SOLD
Masks
Alaska, Village of Whales, Excavated Shaman's Mask, Thule Culture, c. 17th C.
Wood, caribou teeth
6.5 x 4 x 2 inches
16.5 x 10.2 x 5.1 cm
M 650
Masks
Alaska, Point Hope Chin Labret, Eskimo Shaman's Mask, 18th/19th Century
Wood, caribou teeth
9.5 x 6 x 2 inches
24.1 x 15.2 x 5.1 cm
M 651
Masks
Alaska, Ingalik, Eskimo, Shaman's mask (who can effect the wind),
Collected by Cornelius Osgood, c. 1870
Polychrome wood, thread, beads
12 x 11 x 3 inches
30.5 x 27.9 x 7.6 cm
M 646
Masks
Yupik Shaman's mask representing Tunghak, spirit that regulates
the supply of game and lives in the Moon, from Sabotnisky area, c. 1890 - 1900
Polychrome wood, feathers
11 x 6 x 4 inches
27.9 x 15.2 x 10.2 cm
M 648
Masks
Alaska, Nunivak Island, Eskimo, Shaman's Mask of Palraiyuk (serpent), c. 1880's
Polychrome wood
8 x 5.5 x 3.5 inches
20.3 x 14 x 8.9 cm
M 653
Masks
Alaska, Yukon River Delta, Eskimo, Shaman's mask, collected by Joseph Chillberg , c. 1890
Polychrome wood
8 x 5.25 x 2.5 inches
20.3 x 13.3 x 6.4 cm
M 649
Masks
Alaska, St. Michael's new Norton Sound, Eskimo, Shaman's Mask of Inua, with spirit helpers, c. 1880
Polychrome wood
11 x 9 x 5 inches
27.9 x 22.9 x 12.7 cm
M 645
Masks
Alaska, Yukon River Basin, Eskimo, Shaman's Bird Mask, 19th Century
Polychrome wood, pigment, pyrite inlay, four original feathers with paint
14 x 12 x 4 inches
35.6 x 30.5 x 10.2 cm
M 652
Charles Willeto
Untitled (Painted Indian Singers Face)
Eastern Nageezi Navajo Reservation, New Mexico, c. 1961
Carved, painted wood
20 x 5.5 x 2.5 inches
50.8 x 14 x 6.4 cm
CW 14
Charles Willeto
Untitled (Large Spirit Figure)
Eastern Nageezi Navajo Reservation, New Mexico, c. 1962
Carved, painted wood
25.25 x 9 x 2 inches
64.1 x 22.9 x 5.1 cm
CW 15
Errol Lloyd Atherton
Untitled (Figure), 1992
Cedar
32.5 x 9 x 8 inches
82.6 x 22.9 x 20.3 cm
LAt 29
Vincent Atherton
Spirit Figure (two pieces), 1996
Cedar
17 x 11 x 10 inches
43.2 x 27.9 x 25.4 cm
ViA 35
Jesse Aaron
Untitled, n.d.
Found wood, plastic
24.5 x 8 x 11 inches
62.2 x 20.3 x 27.9 cm
JSA 6
Jesse Aaron
Untitled, n.d.
Carved wood
25.5 x 9.5 x 6.5 inches
64.8 x 24.1 x 16.5 cm
JSA 5
Siberia
Ritual shaman's sacred drum handle with a face of a spirit in the centre,
Khanty(Ostyak) people, West Siberia, circa 1880
Carved wood
18 x 3.5 x 1.25 inches
45.7 x 8.9 x 3.2 cm
Sib 13
Siberia
Ritual pendant from a dress of high rank shaman,
representing two patron spirits,
Selkup (Ostyako-Samoed) people, West Siberia, circa 1750-1850
Forged iron
7.75 x 3 x .25 inches
19.7 x 7.6 x .6 cm
Sib 14
Shinichi Sawada
Untitled, 2016
Wood fired ceramic
3.75 x 7.75 x 7.125 inches
9.5 x 19.7 x 18.1 cm
ShSa 7
Masks
Siberia, Evenk People, Shaman's Amulets, Late 19th C.
Bronze alloy
4 x 3 x .5 inches
10.2 x 7.6 x 1.3 cm
M 633 s
Masks
China, Hongshan Period,
Animistic Masquette, 4700 to 2900 BC
Bone
4 x 3.5 x 2 inches
10.2 x 8.9 x 5.1 cm
M 655 s
Panama
Guna People, San Blas Islands
Nuchu figure, for curing and protection, Late 19th C.
Wood, paint
13.5 x 3 x 2 inches
34.3 x 7.6 x 5.1 cm
Pan 2
China
Jade Figure, Hongshan Period, 4700 to 2900 BC
Nephrite jade
8.5 x 3 x .125 inches
21.6 x 7.6 x .3 cm
Chi 356
Panama
Guna People, San Blas Islands
Nuchu figure, for curing and protection, Late 19th C.
Carved and painted wood
10.25 x 3 x 2 inches
26 x 7.6 x 5.1 cm
Pan 3