Judy Varga
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada
(604) 570-0555
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photography
by Judy Varga
TABLE
OF NOON/MAT OF THE MOON
(I planted gardens of fire/confederations of fire)
This sculpture is the locus of a ritual passage, which is concerned with
reconciling the polarity of the elements fire, air, earth, and water by
presenting them in balanced proportions. An abandoned concrete foundation,
nestled in a grove on a patch of light, provided the initial circumscribed
ground plan upon which was placed a coiling stream of aluminum sheeting.
Floating on this mirrored circuit is a series of candles planted in aluminum
rings at regular intervals. A bed of finely textured sand lying parallel
to the stream marks the passage for the procession to light the candles.
The work is a cyclic and interwoven time—space metaphor: an instrument
of transit, a “magnetic field” of light and energy, of ritual
immersion, revealed primarily through the kinesthetic experience of body
perception, empathy, action/reaction, and memory.
As the candles are being lit during the procession, they come to fruition,
slowly progressing from a scintilla to a radiant field, which binds and
dissolves at the edge of reflection. The ritual involves the performers
walking through the open, maze—like configuration, lighting each
candle consecutively, at a slow, even pace,. Branching off from the central
aisle, the performers trace the periphery of the structure, approaching
the center, and converging at the core. Having completed the lighting
process, they retrace their path, unspiralling only to converge again
at the aisle where the journey began.
In celebration of the process of alchemical transformation, as it is perceived
by the body/mind, the rite of passage will be performed at twilight, the
locus of transformation, (where earth and sky overlap and become grounded~
when solar light/ energy gives over to lunar light/energy). At that point,
the body, acting as catalyst, reactivates the light/energy/action, which
recede from the earth as the sun sets below the horizon and initiates
them into the tangible realm.
The physical residue of the event, the record of the “tract”,
now displaced and transformed, recalls the original frame of reference
and calls for its regeneration. Through the shared enactment of this rite
of passage, the event, place, and object manifest a common contextual
pattern, one that extends through space and time. The sequence of the
ritual (public or private) represents a perpetual balance, a cyclical
process of forming and transforming through which we gain access to a
world in which opposites are reconciled.
* The title for this piece was excerpted from the poems “The petrifying
petrified” & “San Ildefonso nocturne” by Octavio Paz.”
“MAS”, a synthesizer composition by John Watts, was played at
twilight during the rite of passage. Watts, who has been called a “wizard
of the ARP” for his pioneering use of synthesizers, intends MAS as
a visionary quest, a search that is essentially spiritual in nature, reflecting
the timelessness and diversity of life —— ever—changing
yet ever the same, always evoking our mature unrest as well as our highest
aspirations.”
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