the measure of ritual - completed

After a year and a half the final lens was found and this narrative object - The Measure of Ritual - is now complete.

The piece grows out of watching the BBC series - Time Team - and the clearinghouse term Ritual which is used seeming when paleontologists/archaeologists can't figure out the utilitarian purpose for an object/monument/seemingly made by man thing. Ritual in the ancestor of what becomes organized religion from what I understand.

The two structures under the glass domes represent dolmens and a henge which are early worship structures. The figure is the 'everyman' the proto human who we, as the godlike observer, can view through the magnifying lenses.

The reindeer horn represents the bone objects often found which seem to be both tool and signifying object.

The viewer is the god being, the scientist, the observer who can study these objects in detail, though in an encapsulated form, removed by time from their once-understood meaning. We can look and speculate but may never fully understand.

For now this piece will reside in my library. Hopeful for an eventual gallery show of pieces in my 'measurement' series. Next up for me is finishing the next narrative object - The Measure of Love

the requisite funny story - the lenses used in this piece only come up on EBay every six months or so. I had been waiting and waiting for the final one because I wanted them to match. One day I was watching a Jimmy DiResta video on YouTube. He was visiting a favorite antique store of his and as the camera pans over the store while he is browsing, lo and behold, my missing lens. So I contacted the store and eventually got a hold of the right dealer and she sold me the lens.