York, Star - Star Liana York



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York, Star

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York, Star - Star Liana York - Swept Away

Star Liana York - Swept Away
Bronze
1995
36 " x 28 " x 24 "

SweptAway

$15,000

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Less than 5 in edition, please call for availability.The action in "Swept Away" is immediately apparent: we are witnessing an abduction. An Apache warrior is lifting a reluctant woman onto his horse to carry her off. But as with all of Star's work, there is a depth that goes beyond what is observed at first glance, and knowing the rest of the story adds levels of appreciation. This scenario, as Star imagines it, takes place in the latter decades of the 1800s when even the last tribes to give up the fight against assimilation were beginning to acknowledge the inevitability of Manifest Destiny. However, there continued to be a few holdouts during this period who resisted the loss of land and culture, who dressed traditionally and drew strength from ancient medicine power. The brave depicted in this sculpture is one of those rebels and he is engaged in a personal act of defiance. Mounted on a large and powerful horse stolen from the US military (there is a US brand on its hind quarters), he is kidnapping a young Apache woman who has resigned herself to change. Perhaps she had been taken as a child when her own tribe was destroyed - in any event, she is following the white man's road, as evidenced by her European dress. Nevertheless, a part of her remains true to her heritage and we know this by her moccasins and the way she wears her hair long and loose. His intention is to take her back to a purer, Indian way of life for practical reasons - the number of traditionalists was dwindling and women were needed to slow the attrition. But the scene works on a symbolic level as well, dramatizing the struggle between new and old, the future and the past, that many proud Indian people faced at this time in history...and even today.Note the brave is essentially unarmed. His shield is purely talismanic in purpose because the introduction of guns made leather shields all but useless for defensive purposes. It is also painted with an elk radiating thunderbolts, which represents powerful fertility. Clearly he has thought out the abduction in advance so that violent confrontation is unnecessary.The woman, on the other hand, is not seeing this as a life or death fight but as a struggle against the now unfamiliar... an important distinction. From her expression we can see that she is experiencing fear and even anger, but not terror. The world he wants to return her to is not beyond her memory, not totally alien; but she has accepted her new way of life and has learned to adjust. What is recognizable on an internal level is that many of us feel a desire for the return to a simpler, more spiritual way of life - an existence that is more in harmony with the earth and ourselves. Our technological society is seductive in its conveniences and comforts, but the tradeoffs can too often lead to the stress and mental fatigue that plagues much of our society. To be "swept away" from it all has an appeal that is reflected in the broad and enduring interest in the art, philosophy and mystique of American Indian cultures.

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Permission to reproduce photos and paintings in this online catalog secured by J. Mark Sublette. All rights reserved. No portion of this online catalog may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from J. Mark Sublette, Medicine Man Gallery, Inc.