Ted Stapleton

‘What If’? Metropolis

Original Greenlight Review Part 1
 Sheila Hicks
Sheila Hicks was born in 1934 in Nebraska, USA and currently lives in Paris, France. She
studied at Yale University and graduated in 1957 with a bachelor of fine arts and in 1959 with
master of fine arts in painting. She worked on the tutelage of Josef Albers, an American-
German artist known for his paintings with an emphasis on squares. During her academic
years she visited Chile where she researched Peruvian and Bolivian archaeological sites and
pre-Columbian textile work, which greatly influenced her.
Hicks believes that popularity in art movements should be finite and gradually fade away in
prevalence, so that they may give more meaning to artwork, the vulnerability and emotion of
it, rather than trying to preserve art for centuries. Hicks wanted to explore how textiles, fibres
and filaments, conveyed language visually with colour, movement, and pattern.
Hicks has created monumental exhibits for various organisations including the Ford
Foundation Headquarters and the Federal Courthouse in New York City. Some of her work
has been described as “fibre-wrapped tubes like giant pool-noodles”; in the Palace of
Versailles where she worked and dressed the statue of Proserpine in blue, purple and orange
colours.
Hicks has stated that she feels that textiles had become “relegated to a secondary role in our
society, to a material that was considered either functional or decorative.” Thus, her goal
throughout much of her career has been to develop textiles to weave astonishing works of art.
Overall Hicks’ work consists expressing emotion and ideas through colour and form, like
many artists before her. However, she uses materials such as wool to transcend their once
societal normalisations and expand upon their meanings of inclusiveness and integration,
contrasting the estranged history of the medium.
 Travelogue
Crossing the vast steppes that run from the dry deserts to the west and to the easterly mountains you approach, you soon come upon the practically legendary city of
Velcapampia. Situated upon a green, flat valley overseen by the peaks of snow-capped mountains, the city finds itself almost hidden from the rest of civilization, engaging
in little trade with world beyond rocky masses, aside from neighbouring villages. For you see, the city practices self-sufficiency through its farms perched on the bases of
the mountains, sheep and goats bleat, cows are milked, llamas domesticated and sheered for their wool, sugar cane grown and procured, herbs harvested, spices
cultivated, water drawn from wells, and fresh fruit and vegetables are gathered on the sunniest of days.

Yet the farms are not what will catch your eyes at first for the city is spoken among travellers for its architecture and lush designs. You gaze upon the colourful expanse of
buildings, juxtaposed against the greenery of the valley; vibrant yellows, oranges, blues, reds, purples and brighter greens group together to form a bouquet of flowers
made from stone, thatch, and wool. For you see, the people take pride in how their places of worship, residence, and administration look. Stone procured from the
surrounding landscape is used to shape and construct walls, thatch is used for the roofs, painted with a myriad of colours, like strands of yarn some have thatch hanging
there tops, flowing and swaying in the gentle mountain wind; signs of wool and cotton are woven for decoration, designation and on special days ceremonial purposes. So
are the interiors of the structures, which are insulated against the freezing of the land, when the ground becomes hardened, barren with ice sprinkled upon it. The exterior
of the houses are like pots and clay products – some shaped and warped stranger than others, clean hardened stone work protects the inhabitants from the elements;
painted in a patchwork of colours, walls built high and decorated with depictions with skulls and angular creatures and sigils.

The most important building in all of Velcapampia is a tall, broad pyramid decorated with patterns of dancing humans, eagles, wildcats, and serpents and banners
sporting the Sigel of the city – an extravagant beast with its top half that of an eagle and its bottom a serpent – made from the finest wool and cotton from the best-bred
llamas and sheep. For this pyramid, dwarfing even the most illustrious of homesteads of priests and merchants in its size and cultural importance. It is where pilgrimages
begin and end, the sacred place where the gods of Velcapampia supposedly communicate their will to the priests, prophecies are foretold and transcribed into walls of the
sanctums and crypts below. It is where the leader of the city is stationed and where they along with their council assort matters both religious, financial and social. The
buildings nearest to the pyramid are more angular and geometric than that of the common citizenry.

Among the days of harvest, ceremony and traditional, there are days of haggling. While Velcapampia experiences little trading outside of its mountainous domain, you are
by good chance to come upon and participate in the market where goods stored, brought and consumed and bargaining is at the behest of the merchants, shopkeepers and
customers. From pots of copper, clay and gold, to jewellery encrusted with diverse gems and markings, to barbecued pork and roasted lamb dosed with herbs and spices
permitting the most gracious aroma to cultural and spiritual texts. The merchants who travel from faraway lands, from across the great, harsh desert of west and the dense
forests of the east, are considered to bare the most worthwhile treasures. To the people of Velcapampia they are strange, unusual relics.
The denizens of Velcapampia are interesting and exotic people; according to their religious texts they are descended from an even more strange
and distant race created by a primal god whom some of the pious kind believe will return and bring an end to all, including the newer gods.
Indeed you happen upon statues of the city’s various deities scattered across the city, soft dolls sold at stands and shops, walls and wool tapestries
are bespectacled with all manner mythic beasts and monsters, tales of heroes hunting them, pushing through cursed lands, leading mighty
armies, and some demi-gods. The one god that is most spoken of and celebrated the most is the eagle-serpent god, who majestic visage also
graces its banner. Among the more peculiar folklore of the city and neighbouring villages, there is legend of a fierce and dark creature, a
malicious entity that lurks within the tallest mountain among the range.

Appearance-wise the Velcapampians mostly dress themselves in all manner of colours. Powerful tones that connote emotions and sometimes
designate their occupation and role in society – regular civilians wear a multitude of colours, although you notice that they are plain compared to
the complex and intricate designs of higher citizenry. The priests where clothes with décor depicting animals and mythical beings and
occasionally furs; covered in the most dazzling patterns and crowns with lengthy, protruding feathers from a plethora of birds. The guardsmen of
the city wear furs and various armour – leather, iron with varying levels of detail; armed with spears, swords, axes and spangled shields they
defend the city from potential invaders or even worse. Those who go on pilgrimages are required to wear clothing plumed but simple headwear
and robes dominated by more mute colours contrasted by more flamboyant patterns and an array of scattered across shapes. In terms of language
the tongue spoken in the city and neighbouring villages is one that has words that some of which people from the surrounding lands may sound
familiar, but for the most part is an archaic and otherworldly language.

Among the pilgrimages that occur over the years the most important one is where you are required to go beyond the farms and trees that lie
across the base of the mountains, travel through jagged and aeons-old rock formations and chilling weather and proceed to a temple located
within a deep cave. With a lit torch, you enter the cave and proceed to lead a doll effigy or an urn containing the ashes of beloved one to an altar
where the gods are said to take the souls of those who perished in the mortal realm and ascend them, or if discordant will send them down to the
lowest levels of hell. Those who place a doll effigy are said to bestowed good luck meaning they have shown your respect to the gods and their
grace. Once you are done you are required to tie a piece of coloured yarn to show you have been on pilgrimage, though priests do oversee the
process.
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