Combining elements of alchemy and shamanism with a child-like sense of investigation, in Mysteries of the Sky World we displayed curiosities from the physical, mythical and psychic upper realm. The sky is a place of soul travel, the home of ancestors and spirit guides, and the domain of romantic memories, fleeting dreams, and glimpses of the future.
"A series of spirit vessels, suspended in their flight across the aerial space of the gallery, face toward the south as if together traveling the sky. These dreamlike vehicles, a motorcycle ship, a towtruck plane, a winged parade-rifle, to name a few, are carefully constructed from materials like wood, glass, bone, paper and iron. The highlight of these is the Zeppelin, a twelve foot long illuminated wood and cloth sculpture displayed on the second floor of the gallery. Full-scale schematic drawings, a specially-designed work bench, notes, and tools, showed the elaborate ritual of creating the Zeppelin and start to reveal its use.
In the center of the gallery, an interactive installation invites viewers to participate in sky-travel by playing an adaptation of a child's matching game. The Memory Game consists of 64 mahogany cards that combine images of the sky with depictions of major or minor memories (such as a kiss, a funeral, or the sighting of a coyote). Though the images in the game are paired, they are always slightly different, the way our own memories change every time we visit them.
Another area of the gallery is devoted to documenting a recent performance. 100 Messages sent by a Crow was a one-day-only psychic message service provided by the Crow, believed in North American mythologies to be the messenger to and from the gods. A series of photographs, artifacts, sculpture, and the Crow dancer's costume are on display, along with a description of the message delivery process.
Other works in the show include a series of layered transparent drawings paired with passages from historical and modern texts, and a giant 25 foot long book of drawings, diagrams, stories and poetry that elaborate upon the phenomena of the world of the sky."
From Mysteries of the Sky World
Donna Beam Gallery
Las Vegas, NV, April 2006
