Philip E. Harding

The Time Capsule: Introduction

 The students at Amistad Elementary School are preparing a cyber time capsule to pass on something from our times to an unknown future generation. Deciding what to put into such a capsule, as well as what form such a capsule should take, will be challenging. While I won't offer any solutions, I want to share some ideas taken from my own work as an artist, art historian and collector. I am including here, two essays with links to my own virtual art gallery. The first essay deals with the interpretation of cultural artifacts and how people throughout history, have built shrines, reliquaries, temples and cathedrals to preserve objects and ideas of value for future generations. The second essay is a discussion of the dominate themes in my own art and how I have tried to address these themes in drawings, paintings and sculptures over the last fifteen years. This is followed by a link to an art gallery where samples of my art can be viewed and where in a few cases, an expanded discussion of specific projects has been included.

 Philip E. Harding ­ January 1997

Artifacts: An Essay on Culture

 How do we determine meaning? How do we measure value? What do we do with the objects, places and ideas that are important to us ­ both as individuals and as a civilization?

Two Kenya dolls: left - ethnic, right - tourist

 Pictured above are two dolls purchased in Nairobi, Kenya. Each reveals something different about the culture and the motivations of craftsmen. The one on the left is a true ethnic art. It was made by a member of the Turkana Tribe from Northern Kenya, and shows a girl in traditional Turkana dress who has reached the age where she is now old enough to be married. The style is very abstract. The face is flat with angular, mask-like features showing no expression of individuality or emotion. The remaining arm is very thin and was never given a hand. In contrast the breasts, belly and hips have been emphasized because these features are important to giving birth and raising children. The chances are good that this doll was made with a specific girl in mind ­ perhaps a member of her own family ­ not simply as a toy to be played with but as a sort of fertility figure. At some point, the girl grew up. The doll may then have had its arm deliberately broken off to release its spirit before being sold to a souvenir dealer. Eventually it reached the streets of Nairobi where it was sold to me.

 The figure on the right was also purchased on the streets of Nairobi, but it is not possible to determine which tribe or region of Kenya its craftsman came from. This is tourist art. It is done in a more modern, more realistic style. It presents a caricature of an African woman carrying a pot on her head. While her arms are also thin in proportion to her figure, this artist has not revealed the shape of the woman's body since this would be considered immodest to most modern Western viewers. The craftsman has carved the figure out of ebony because tourists will pay more for ebony. He has given the work a flat base so that it can stand upright on a tourist's table or fireplace mantel. In short, the figure on the right was made in order to make money from tourists and expresses little or nothing of the artist's traditional cultural values.

 So what are these two figures worth and how is their value measured? If measured in dollars as charged by Nairobi street vendors, they are worth about the same ­ around ten US dollars. But if we measure them for their ability to express cultural meaning and the values of those who created them, then the Turkana doll is clearly more valuable. It is a truer, more honest work of art.

Massai Elders presenting a stick to my father.

 While I was in Kenya my father and I were invited to visit a clan of the Massai tribe in Southwest Kenya. This clan lived so far out in the African bush that they had spent days clearing a path just so our truck could reach their village. When we met the village elders under a flame tree, the oldest member of the tribe gave my father a stick. All Massai elders carry such sticks, just as their warriors carry spears. Therefore, in giving a stick to my father, they were embracing him as an honorary Elder in their clan. So how much is this stick worth? To talk about it in terms of dollars is meaningless. One might sooner ask, "what is the value of a Massai Elder?" This simple stick could properly be called "priceless." An object does not become priceless simply because it is rare or old or made by a famous person, but rather because it has certain associations which give meaning and value that cannot be measured in dollars. These associations may be of personal value or something a whole nation values.

Jacqueline Kennedy with faux pearls.

 Just because something has associations which make it priceless does not mean people will not attempt to put a price on it. This is particularly true of things owned by famous people. The string of fake pearls worn by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the picture above, recently sold at auction for $211,500. If they had been owned by anyone else, they might have been worth less than $20.00. To the people at the auction, the false pearls represented a moment in time ­ a piece of history for which $211,500 seem a reasonable price to pay.

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