Th e P o e t i c s o f S o u l:

A rt f or E v er y o n e

u LA C K P E 0 P t, E co mp rise ha lf the popu lat io n of th e small m idw ester n

[Own t hat I have lived in for the past six years, even t ho ugh the neighbor-
hood where m y house is remains p redominately whi te . Coo k ing in m y
kitche n one recent afte rnoo n, I was cap t ivated b y t he love ly vern acular
sounds of black schoo lchildren walk ing by. W hen I went to the win dow rc
watch them . I saw no black chi ld ren. only white child ren. TIleYwere not
child ren fro m a ma te rially-p rivileg ed backg rou nd . They attend a p ublic
school in whi ch black child ren const itute a maj orit y. The man nerisms , t he
style, even th e vo ice s of th ese white child ren had come to resemble t heir
black peers -e-nos t h rough an y chic acts of cuiru ral app ropri at ion . nor
th roug h any willed desire (0 "eat [he a th er." They were JUSt t here in the same
space sbanng life- becoming tog et her, forming th em selves in relation ro
one anothe r, to what seemed most real, This is JUStone of the many everyda y
encounters with cult ural di fference. wit h racial ident ity, that rem ind me of
how con structed th is a ll can be, t hat th ere is really not hing inh eren t o r
"essent ial" t hat allows us eoclat m in an absolute wa y any heritage .
Sad ly, at a ti me when so mu ch sop hist icated cultu ral cr it icism by hip
intellect uals from di verse locat io ns extols a visi on of cultu ral hyb rid it y,
bo rde r cross ing , sub jecti vity const ructed Out of pl u rali ty, t he vast major-
ity of folks in t his society st ill be lieve in a no t ion ofiden nry that is roo ted
in a sense of e ssent ial t raits an d characte rist ics tha t are fixed and stat ic.
Man y co nte m po rary Afr ican- Americans, espec iall y th ose from non-
m ater ia lly p rivileg ed bac kg rou nd s. a re sed uct ively eng ag ing a narrow
nationali st identity po lit ics tha t leads them to invest in not ions of et hnic
p ur it y, t hat mak es t hem bo t h fearful and di sm issive of th ose ind ivid ua ls
who do nor sha re th e same set of assum pt io ns. Am on g th e black poo r and
de sruu re. whose li ves are ravag ed by exploi tat ive and oppr essive insti tu -
t io na li zed str uctu res of d om inat ion , na rrow na t ion al ism take s ho ld
beca use it intrud e s on th e co nc rete rea li t ies o f pcs r mod em ma laise ,
 TlH PO ETIC. S a t sot t ,U T tO k t \-t k VO :>. t 11

A lu on Saar. Sapph ire. 1986. Beads and stqlllns. 25" x 3-1. n COII,-,tSJ off an
BaH'" G alltry.

W he n t he g roun d IS sha king un der one's feet , Iundu rnen taljsr ide utity
politics can offer a sense of srabihry, T he rregedy is time It deflects atten-
ti on from t hose forms of Struggle t hat mig ht have a more const ructi ve.
trunsfo rma ti ve impa ct on b lack life.
Black folks who are Interrogating essendetiseessc mpuoos about black
idemiry an: engaged in an act of decoloneancn tha t em powers and liber-
ares. In the es~ y "Mrmmal Selves ," the black Bnrish cult ural crit ic Sru-
arr H all affirms this: ~ It may be true that the self IS alwa ys, III a sense. a
fiction. JUSt as the kind of 'clos ures' wh ich are required eo create com mu-
runes of idennficanon -c-naricn , echmc g roup . famili es , sexualit ies.
erc.c-care arb itra ry closu res: and the forms of political an ion , whether
move r nenrs, or parr ies, those tOO are temporary, parcial , arbi rrery, Ir IS an
Im mensel y im portant gai n when one recog nizes rhar all iden my is con-
st ructed across difference." G iven th is realiry, ac ts of appropr iar ion lire
part of the process by which we make ourselves. App rop riati ng - taking
so met hing for one's own use -need nor be synony mous wirh explcrta-
non. T his is esp ecia lly H ue of cull ura l appropriat ion. Th e Muse" one
ma kes of wha t IS appropriared is the cruc ial factor.
•

12 AR T ON M Y MI ND

T hese days it is often assumed t hat any act of cultura l appropriation

wherein one et hnic g roup d raws on t he experiences of a g roup to which
they do not belong is suspect . Issues of aut hent icity are raised co devalue
work th at eme rges from cultural bo rro wings. For a more expansive
understand ing of culrural appropriation to eme rge in this societ y, crit ical
th inkers would need to consrrucc both a revised onto logy and rad icall y
different t heories of knowled ge. Th is wou ld me an taking serious ly ways
of knowing t hat may not be deemed rati onal. Rig ht now, di rect experi-
ence is privileged in many of the deba tes surround ing ide nti ty politi cs as
the most relevant way to app rehend reality. Experience is clearly one wa~'
to know, yet th ere are many ot her ways as well.
T he appeal to experie nce is cent ral for all claims of aut henticity, T his
has been th e case especi ally with respect to black vernacula r cultu re and
its appropriation by ind ividuals who an: nor black, or by black folks who
are from mater iall y pri vileged backg roun ds, or who were raised in p re-
do minatel y white envi ronm ents, or wit h mixed ethnic or racial parent-
age. Counte ring claims to black nurhent icuy in the essay "Black Art and
t he Burden of Representaeiun," Kobena Mercer cont end s: "W hen th e
tr op e of 'aut hent icit y' is used to define th e qu esti on of aes t hetic and
political value, it often red uces to an arg ument abour who does, and does
not, 'b elong' in t he black communities ." Oftent imes rhe issue of aut hen-
t ici ty is raised when indiv idual black art ists produce wor k rhar is well
received by t he whit e mainstr eam . \'Uirhin the realm of cu ltu ral produc-
non, as more white produ cers and consumers traffic in the commod ifica-
tion of blackness, showing bot h inte rest in and fascination with sub ject
marrer related to b lack experience, part icu larly to black vern acu lar cul-
rure, issues of cultural appropriat ion , owners hip, and au thent icit y come
to th e fate. Ind ivid ual African-A mer ican arti st s are more likel y rc be
interrogated about issues of identity tha n ever before.
W hen Alison Saar recentl y exhibited he r work at th e Hi rshhc m
Museum in Washingt on , D.C.. African-American criti cs and arnsr s were
among t hose who judg ed her work from the stand point of narrow iden-
tity poli ces . Accu sed by critics of self-consciously appropriating black
folk arc in an att empt to mask her privileged upbring ing , Saar found that
her ident ity and not he r aest hetic became the cent ral issue. Hank But-
cha rd 's review of the exhibi t in the W(u hingroll POJ1 was particu larly
scat hing, In a me an -spi rited , ridiculing rone, Burchard assert ed : "She
 Ti ll: PO ETI CS Of SOU L ART rO R EVI: R" O N £ 11

seems nor so m uch a ralenred African · Amer ican in search of her an in ic

identi ty as an accom plished art ist in se arch ofan African-American iden-
rit y. Th e im media te, powerful impa ct of her sculptures fades rather than
builds because one ca nnot help seeing t hat Saar 'd umbs dow n' her first -
class craft skills in im itat ion of rhe rude execution of folk a n. Th is com-
R

ment is h igh ly iron ic si nce it is precisely the self-co nscious d ispl a}' of
enisnc skill and craft evident in Saar's work that is meant to Stan le aud i-
e nces, mak ing them aware rhar th ey a re looking not a t folk ar r bu t,
indeed , a t an that is informed by th e aest hetic princ ip les and ideals or
t hai ge ntle an , Saar's work fuses rradirional acade mic study of an. bot h
his to ry and c raft, and &aa r's own aest het ic exper ience of folk a rt trad i-
tions, That fusion necessarily carries with it m imet ic traces that proud ly
asse rt t hemselves in the work . even as Saar reveals he r un iq ue art ist ic
vmon. U nfon unatdy, reviews of the H irshhorn exhi bit lhat focused nar-
rowly on q cesefons of person al bac kg round deflected att ention fro m
Saar's a rrisnc vision , It was as thou gh the exh ibi t was t he HTo Tell the
Truth" ga me sho w and th e only q ues tion rhar needed to be as ked was
- W ill the real black perso n please stand Up?M
Rob yn J ohnso n- Ross's sho re po lemica l piece " Ersatz Afr ica: Alison
Saar at the H irshhcm " was even more agg ressive in irs ins iste nce t hat the
value of the work could be assessed wit hou t di rect conside rat ion of an}'·
thing except the art ist 's identi ty and personal hist ory. Assert ing that th e
artis t is, "after all , neither b lack nor white, but somet hi ng in between ,"
Ross nega tes all und ers tanding of identity as locally coosrruc eed. formed
by bc rh c ho ice a nd concexr. In the first half of the piece she add resses
Saar's failure to rend er an "aurhem ic" version of the bibl ical narra t ive of
Salome - as t hou g h t his we re th e function of a rt, to docu ment already
exist ing narratives. T hruug houe her review J ohnso n- Ross demonsrrares
no int erest in Saar's aesehedc vision and is content to d ismiss her work as
inaut hentic, as "w illed rath er t han lived : ' U lti mately. this dism issal is
dt receed ac a white m useum srrucrure t hat J ohnson- Ross perceives to be
showing tOO g reat an interest in validati ng art t hat clea rly in no wa y
interests her, "You could say that African-American t hemes have, at pre-
sen r. a g reat hold on rhe con re mpora ry g allery and museum age nd a, so
even t he New D irect ions, which has a rep utat ion for 'd ifficult ' a rt , wi ll
have a place for Alison Saar's narrative folk sculptu re." Indeed. if thi s con-
tent ion wert' tr ue, we would be witnessing major needed t ransform at ions
 T ill PO llTI CS Of SO UL "K T FO K I!VF;J.VON B n

early piece like EncJuUllt sugges ts, t he sou l is complicated . T hat which
lures us to pleasure also rakes us close to danger. The soul evoked in Saar's
work is nor a si mp listic metaphysical constr uct ion. It is, as Thomas
Moore sugges ts in Curt OJ lbe 50111, "closely connected to fare, and th e
rums of fate almost always go counter to the expectations and often to rhe
desires of t he ego." T he figures t hat inhabi t th e worl d of Saar's work
know t his. They know t he cnpred ictabiliry of life and circumst ance. how
quickly the good can change to evil, rhe darkness to light. It is this para·
doxical myste r),Saar C'a lls us ro em brace in a modern world t hat privileges
order and cont rol. t hat de nies t he power of deStiny and fare.
Sexual long ing and desire remain one of th e s paces of hum an need
where myst ery is encou ntered , where th e will to su rrende r overw helms
rational concerns. Many of'Sear's images . includi ng)M} MEMgtM, lmiJiblt
/\ IUII , and L4 P," "a Blanca , dep ict da ngerous de sire: Men who seek to
~ss and lure, who leave thei r lovers lost and wondering . Women who
lust with a veng eance, whose will to possess and consu me rhe desi red
object is as int ense and potent ially violent as that of any ma n. An odd
mixtu re of torment and deligh t surfaces in Saar's pieces. 1Xlailflouw is one
of the few sculpt ures d isplaying an entire body that is Hghr-colored. The
blank down cast look on t his blond- hai red lig ht body bespeaks the exis-
tence of a world beyond the white -sup remacist aesthe tics t hat overvalue
t hese very tra its. In th is lopsided world, such traits are not markers that
incite interest and desire. In Saar's sculpture Sapphirt. she shows an image
of conflicred lcngin gs. t he black female who sees herself as most desirable
when she has a look of whit eness. Althoug h she appears strong and capa-
ble, when her heart and soul are bared she reveals th at she has fragments.
bi rs and pieces , whe re her hearr wou ld be. In t he d ark b lue Di oe, (he
black female figu re wit h songbird rnagi c in her chest is incomp lete.
unrerrain, has a look of hesitatio n. Her long ing is so intense she appears
ot herworld ly, as th ou gh wha t she sees from her bri g ht g reen eyes is a
world so astou nding it cannot be expressed in mere speech . lnsmllarions
such as LOI" PotiM #9 evok e (he desperate yearn ing for love rhat leads
folks to lose t heir minds roo as we used fa say in the South , "a shoot -and-
cur kinda love," the "if I can't have you nobody will." T homas Moore sug-
s estS rhar "soul is co be fou nd in the vicinity of taboo." Saar's work revea ls
a fascin ation wi t h the trag ic d imension of love and desire. Figures like
SU'tt' T hONg and Htll fbm Tea 01 T rUl1Ip 'l hi nt at th e power of desir e ro
14 An' O N MY MIN lJ

in t he art world . Unfo rcunerely, it is th e type of uninformed hyperboli c

assert ion t hat m islead s. even as It deflects attent ion from th e extent to
whi ch str uct ures of do mination based on race, sex, and class remai n
un changed and intact in galleries and mu seums , funct ionin g to exclude
marginal g roups or dism iss t heir work th rough the use of the binary pa ra ~
dig rns j ohnson-Rcss relies on ,
Trained in trad it ional institutions ro t hink about art in t he usual Euro-
centric ways. Alison Saar chose to break with that th inking and reeducate
herself. That process of nu rturing crit ical conscious ness enabl ed her {Q
form an opposi t ional perspecrive t hat could embrace her hold ing in high
esteem vernacular ees chenc practices, es pecia lly folk art , even as she con-
ti nued to be inte rested in canonical works wit hin whit e Wescern classical
rrad irions. Freed of t he academic biases common III old -school art depart-
ments, which devalue folk an and vernacular cultu re, Saar looked to those
rradirions as resources, allowing t hem co shape her aes t het ic.
Studyin g African and African- Amer ican art with the black female
arti st Samella Lewis as a teacher, SaM found her new directions affirmed .
She emb ar ked on research to unco ver sub jug ated kn owledge abo ut
African-Amer ican anisrs and be came passionately engaged wi ch folk
art ists, in part icul ar t hose who b el ieve t heir work to be visionary, meta-
ph ys icall y gu ided by pow ers g reate r than hum ank ind. T hese arti sts
offered an aesth et ic pedagogy t hat ran counter CO the norion of "g reat art"
produced primarily for el ite audiences. Saar was impressed by the dept hs
of rheir commirmen r to making art . not for fame or money bur for che ele-
vat ion of th e human spine. To these arrisrs, mak ing art was tantamou nt
to reli g ious se rvice, and to Saar's amazement th ey were de vour in rhei r
asp iratio n "co make art for anyone who would rake t he time to look at it. "
Drawing on t hese patterns ofdevot ion, commit ment, and a vis ion of ba t h
t he art ist and rhe indi vid ual work as funcnoni ng to serve and sustain life,
Slur began co real ize her own ar t isti c destiny.
Like her predecessors, she searched in the world around her for mat er-
ial to use in making arr, Work ing with salvaged "found" ob jects. as well
as with spec ifically selected and soug ht-afte r materials, Saar beg an to ere-
are a body of work celebrati ng fusion , cultu ral bo rrowing, and Inter mix-
ing rhar be ars witn ess to a poetics of soul.
Agains r a bac kd rop of posr modem not hing ness, fragmentat ion , and
loss, Saar's work inv ites us to engage the mysteries of t he soul. Yet as an
 Til t PO IlT IC S 0 1' SO UL ART fOR EVt.lt YO N E P

racist icon ograph y it is often depict ed as a site of bet rayal. J USt as lilt'
white fema le in racist sexist iconog raphy most ofte n symbolizes inn o-
cence and virt ue, t he absence of sexual passion, t he black female bod y is
usually marked as the opposite.
~bn y of the naked black female bod ies pictured in Saar's work assume
sed uct ive poses , t heir bodi es op en for ent ry. As "sweet rbe ngs." b lack
femalt's must use sexuality as a means ro survive. Saar suggests rhar thert
15 lnreg rit)' in th is choice. For example. Saar's scu lpture Cleo posits lhat

fema le long ing can be- posu ioned as wonhy even as th e- female remains
sexual, d riven by passion. Clearly, Saar depicts Salome as a woman d riven
b)' unrequited long ing to de-sera)' the ob ject cf ber effecrion and desi re. In
Saar's scul pt ure, Salome render ly crad les rhe head of J ohn rhe Bapt ist .
Her mouth is ope n as th ough she hopes to b rearhe life. to nurt ure and
rescoreall tha t mad de sire has driven her eo descrey, T hat rbe deat h of the
longed-for mate does not release Salome from torment is rhe most trag ic
and sorrowful culmination of th is taboo de sire. It has d riven her 10 ebe
edg e bu t not afforded her peace. These are love's faral iries -c- envy and
,ealously are emo tions that can str ip away reason. creat ing unre solvable
Inne r tension and conRict. Yet It IS rhrs su rrende r to an all -consuming
yearn ing th at exposes Salom e's sou l. th e vul nerab ilit y she woul d use
power, status. and position to mask.
Paradox and corn rsdicr ioe are the mysteries of the soul. The weird, t he
uncanny art sources of knowledge. To know the self. Saar's work sugg ests.
one must open the hean wide and search every pa rt . Thi s requires facing
t he unacceptable, i he pe f"o'erse, rhe stra nge. even t he sick. \X/ithout thi s
cri tical embrace of meraphysical complexit y th e soul cannot b e under-
stood. Moore contends: "Sometimes deviaricn from t he usual is a special
revelation of tru th . In alchem y thi s was referred to as t he op us rrmfY{1 nam-
Y{IHl , an effect conrrary to nature, \Vlc m ight see th e same kind of artful

unnatu ral expression wit hin our own lives. \Vl hen normality explodes or
breaks out inro craaincss or shadow, we mig ht look closely, before run ning
for cover and before attempt ing to restore familiar order. at rhe porenrial
meani ng fulness of t he event , If we are going to be curious about the soul,
we may need to explore its deviations. its perverse tendency to con t r adict
expectations," Unlike th e visionary folk anises who inspire her. SaM does
nor see the soul as in need of spiritual purification. For her the soul is a site
for excavation- holding archeological Stores of emotional meaning to be
16 ART ON M~' N IN O

tHUD" Saar. Diva. 1988. \Vood, tin , paim. 32" x 30 " x 10." Courtny ofJa n
BIl H", Gill/ery.

d isrupt and challenge norms. Even when it comes to struct ures of dcmi -
nanon . racism . sexism, and class bo undaries. love and des ire can lead
folks astray. can nite r what app eared to be a fixed dynami c, a set locati on .
It is this aspec t of desire t hat Saar capt ures in the piece Fea r a nd PIlJllon.
Wi th Inte nse long ing comes the fear and possib ility of berr ayal. Saar
h ig hlig hts Ihe b lack: female body precisely b ecause withi n sexist and
 'rua POE TI CS O F SO U L AR T f OR EV " RV O N E 19

heavyhanded , Saar's Ftrtilt Ground atte sts to the histo rical relat ion black
folks have had to land , to th e agrarian Sout h. Bot h T IN CQtf(;1J D emon and
The TQbau o DtTfJ{J11are heuming figures. Th e spirit of agsressivt" emp ri-
ness and des olat ion conveyed by "the cotton demon " decons rrucrs th e
image of wh iteness as pu re and innocenr. Here th e whiteness of the soul.
t he interior self, as a sign of dep rivation an d lack , will b e precisely th e
stare of being impose d on th ose hum an s enslaved for p rofit, who mu st
plant, pick, and harvest t he product. Uh imarely, It is a ba rrenness of
sp irit that drives th is demon, an absence of soul.
In her recent work Saar continues to explore t he way in which soulless-
ness damages th e human sp irit even as she also creates images that cele-
brate soulfulness. The black fem ale de picted in th e lith ograph Blo(k
Snakt Blm.J has no d iffi culty claim ing a space where she can d ream and
desi re, where she can engage in t he soul's reverie. Altho ugh she longs for
pleasure that is ming led wi th danger- th e healing poison of the snake
that would release her spirit, set it free-she can reach fulfillm ent alone.
Her soul can be sat isfied as she lies alone, engaged in passionate erot ic
reverie. Lying on red sheets, holdin g her breasts. she bold ly cla ims her
passion wit hout fear or shame. Neglected by oth ers. by lovers who do not
appea r, she cares for her soul and her body. Wai ting , for her. is t he space
for contemplation and reverie.
More th an among any oth er g roup of pe op le in th e United State s, In
African- Ame ri01n vernacu lar th ere has always been a concern wit h the
soul. Unfortunately, T homas Moore's pr eoccupati on wi t h Burocen mc
understandi ngs of the soul leads h im to ig nore th is focus on t he soul that
black people have consistently high lighted and shared with mainst ream
white cult ure. T he aesthetic vision of "soul music" was precisel y one in
which a need to care for the soul was foreground ed . As in Saar's work , t hat
vernacular emphasis on cu ltivat ing th e soul, searchi ng for depth and
mean ing in life. was continually connected ro expe-ie nces of pleasure and
de lig ht. Whi le Saar constr ucts a poeti cs of soul in her work th at compels
recog nir ion of its dangero us mysteries and po wer, she also revels in th e
pleasure of soulfulness. T hat spirit of play and revelry is present in muc h
of her work . It is quintesse nt ially expressed in the installat ion SQul StrI'ire
Station. A sup erfic ial look at t his installat ion migh t lead one to see on ly
quaint folk art- like figure s that seem merely Aat and naive; art fully con-
str ucted . bur lacking, perhaps , in depth . Yet anyone who looks at t hese
I II AItT ON MV MIND

examined without judgment . Refusal to embrace a negat ive, darker side of

being is ranram oun r to de nial. Truth . particularly about ehe self, can not
be known if any aspect of the soul is repudiated. Th e tru e seeker who longs
for self-real ization journeys wh<:-rr ' -er the sou l leads.
If is t his releo dess searchi ng that is evet-present in Saar's work: the
con sta nt yearni ng for cla rity of vision and insight rhat may or may no t
co me . Value is found in th e na t ure of sea rching . That yea rn ing is
expressed po litically, in g rie ving for so rrow s in t he pas t tha t werr not
ack nowledged. To see Saar's D) iR8 Sln,y in a whire-scpremacise cultu re
that wou ld have everyone suppress bot h the hor ror and pain of th at his-
to rical moment is to engage in an act of rit ual rem em beri ng . SiQ,. Song
blindly evokes t hat pain . Saar will not allow the hurt inflict ed upon th e
body to be forgon en . It is t he int ensity of sufferi ng that creates t he pas.
sio n of remem brance.
With rhe insta llati on Fertile Ground, Saar constr ucts visual monu-
ments that bear witness to t he holocaust of slavery and irs afte rm at h. H er
int ent is ro rem ind us, to work ab'1li nst the silence and erasures of t he past.
Th is work bears witness even as it de ma nds recog nit ion of the rraliry t har
black people were and are more than merely our pain . Thi s "more" can be
underst ood on ly in a context where th e sou l is recognieed-c- where the
experie nces of t he body a re no t seen as th e on ly marke rs of personal
integ rity. The state of being that surpasses the bod)' and e ncom~s t he
sou l is the ontologi cal understandi ng that has always provided exp loired
and oppressed folks bot h t he hope for and the concrete experience of tra n-
scendence. Enslaved black bodies couJd care for the soul by forgi ng inti-
mat e connect ions and com m un iti es wi rh t he land. The g rou nd is
precisely the space where rhe de humanized aspec t of rbe selfca n be laid to
rest and an integrity of be ing that t ranscend s the ph ysical plane can be
claimed and affirmed . Thi s understand ing of t he power of the ea rt h, pre-
sent in the religious beliefs held by the Native Amer ican dwellers and the
first Africans who journeyed here. not as slaves but as seekers. is a legacy
of spiritual resista nce I hat cont inues into the present day. O ffe ring testi -
mony. Saa r sha res her expe rience of stand ing on t h is g round as a non-
Sout he rne r, feeling "rhe spi ri rua l presen ce in th e landscape." The
inst all at ion is com memorat ive. It does not rake rhe place of rhe expe ri-
ence. Saar declares: "I o actually IN t here, ro see that , to have t hat feeling ,
to sta nd on that ground, to be in tbat place is imporranr . ~ W ith out bei ng
 rur eo r-rr cs o r , OUL ARl' fOR EVl!ll, YONr 21

OUt t he beaury in ehe everyday, and cele brate t he metaphys ical , she did
nor conte m pla te the realit)' t hat no cr itica l framewo rk existed to I hearer-
ically valida re and ilium inare th e sig niIicance of rhis sh ift, its pol ir ica l
sub \'l:rsi\'eness, Now she has Iived wit h t he im plicat io ns of her choice and
und ersta nds more i n t j mat ely wha t we sac rifice when we choose (Q di s-
sent , Th e spi rit of sac rifice is ref lected wirh elegance and gra ce in her new
piece Heart tlml Sold seC' co ver iHuscrar ion). T he sole of rhe shoe is worn
pres umabl y by It rough journey, by th e traversing of te rrains rhar tesr and
try th e spirit. That th e path walked is a journey 10 the spi rit is evsde r u by
the hea rt t hat surrou nds th e hole in the sole. All rhar is sacrificed is made
me an ingful when th e co m plexi t y of the so ul is exposed . revealed . irs
bea uty and ime grit), as ever-p resem witness.
20 ...II T ON M Y ;\II N I>

images wit h an ere for spirit ual complexity sees a bar ren landscape wit h a
life force corning from a sign that, like rhe sun, promises to nurt ure. Thar
sig n says t hat the soul will be g iven care here - al a mock gaso line sra-
l ion . T hese images link ing man and natu re suggest th at t he ab ility to
imagine recbnclogy t hat can invent the automobile, t hat can plunder rhe
earth for resou rces to make ga soline to fuel cars, does not rid us of rhe
need to care for t he inner life, t he world of t he soul. Technolog y is pte -
seneed here not as an evil but, rather , as a parallel unive rse,J ust as the car
musr be given gas to go forward, to take us where we wanr to go, rhe soul
must be acknowled ged -c-culrivered and cared for- if we are to become
self-realized human beings.
Saar's poeti cs of soul is situated wit hin the context of everyday life. for
it is t here that our spirits dwell and stand in need of comfort and shelter,
Rather than depiCti ng t he metaphysical plane as exist ing in some evolved
high er state be yond the ordinary, Saar's work seeks to reveal the presence
of holy spirit in our da ily life. Saar endeavors to create art t hat awakens
awareness of the met aphysical, sho wing t hat it may be, as A. David
Napier suggesrs in FOrtigll Bodies , "embod ied in t he physical , even in
what we recogruze as the inanimate." It is th is oppositional insig ht t hat
insp ires vernac ular visionary arti sts. It allows Saar to testify: "~ I work ed
once wit h a t ree. I thoug ht about the African and American Ind ian be lief
tha t tree spirits had to be at peace before anyrhi ng could be carved from
them . I also t hink about t he spirir of iron and t he natu re of iron." Napier
conrends: "Ar issue here is not simply what used to be called 'animism,'
bu t an ontology, a system of connected ness by which an ind ividu al's
awareness of self is pred icated on a system of reciprocal exchanges in the
visi ble world , In a uni verse of relarions go verned by Mauss's archaic
notion of t he gift - in which ind ividuals 'know' themselves by act ually
exchangi ng with ot hers chose object s by wh ich t hey are ' idenrified'<-.
knowledge can exist in the absence ofierellecrcalism , since much of what
is worth knowing is quite literall y self-evident. T he self, in ocher words,
becomes evident throug h a visible demonstra tion of its connectedness."
It is this state of be ing. so often unfamiliar (Q those of us in contemporary
cult ure. that Saar extols in her work. And for t har reason the work is ofte n
crirically misunderstood by bot h t hose indivi d uals who celebrate it and
those who see it as superfi cial. Years aso, when Saar first made t he choice
to commit herself to an an practi ce rhar would engage t he ordinary, call