scimath
Quadripartion of Space
After several years of study, I can assuredly state what primarily attracts me to the Inca culture: our views of the world seamlessly harmonize. Like myself, the Inca are firm believers in reciprocity, balance, and tradition. One of the most intriguing means by which Inca beliefs are apparent in everyday life is through their organization of space - evident in indigenous name for the Inca empire: Tawantinsuyu, “the Land of the Four Quarters.” This quadripartite thinking permeates Inca society, religion and mythology. Extensive research in the Andes demonstrates that communities, like the larger empire of which they are a part, organize themselves in like manner. Dividing space into four equal parts is instinctual, with deep roots in the cardinal compass directions. The Inca efficiently utilize this system to codify their empire, their cosmology, and their religion. As I steadily probe Inca cultural beliefs, artistic inspiration abounds. For the artwork Quadripartion of Space, I work with the basic idea of quartering. When space is split into fours, associations occur that are ripe with astronomical consequence. The cardinal (N,S,E,W) and intercardinal (NE, NW, SE, SW) crosses are most significant, symbolizing the four primary and four secondary directions. Any responsible Inka will project ideas of space from the ground onto the heavens and will equate the two as a single unit. In reverence to this original mode of thinking, I take a photograph of the sky and dissect it along the cardinal axis. I meticulously remove smaller units within each quarter and replace them with their opposite pair - gently changing the original space they inhabit. Finally, the two wanderers reunite through a length of thread, joining them once more, together forever.
Artist: Stacy Searcy
Quadripartion of Space
After several years of study, I can assuredly state what primarily attracts me to the Inca culture: our views of the world seamlessly harmonize. Like myself, the Inca are firm believers in reciprocity, balance, and tradition. One of the most intriguing means by which Inca beliefs are apparent in everyday life is through their organization of space - evident in indigenous name for the Inca empire: Tawantinsuyu, “the Land of the Four Quarters.” This quadripartite thinking permeates Inca society, religion and mythology. Extensive research in the Andes demonstrates that communities, like the larger empire of which they are a part, organize themselves in like manner. Dividing space into four equal parts is instinctual, with deep roots in the cardinal compass directions. The Inca efficiently utilize this system to codify their empire, their cosmology, and their religion. As I steadily probe Inca cultural beliefs, artistic inspiration abounds. For the artwork Quadripartion of Space, I work with the basic idea of quartering. When space is split into fours, associations occur that are ripe with astronomical consequence. The cardinal (N,S,E,W) and intercardinal (NE, NW, SE, SW) crosses are most significant, symbolizing the four primary and four secondary directions. Any responsible Inka will project ideas of space from the ground onto the heavens and will equate the two as a single unit. In reverence to this original mode of thinking, I take a photograph of the sky and dissect it along the cardinal axis. I meticulously remove smaller units within each quarter and replace them with their opposite pair - gently changing the original space they inhabit. Finally, the two wanderers reunite through a length of thread, joining them once more, together forever.
Artist: Stacy Searcy