Evolution of a Sacred Space: Días de los Muertos 2008,
October 8– December 7, 2008 at the Oakland Museum.
The Community Celebration is Saturday, Oct 25, and the hours are 12–5 p.m. Please check out the website and upcoming exhibits, http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/exhi_dod_08.html
I have had a wonderful journey creating this alter. I rediscovered my grandparents, discovered my great grandparents and relived childhood memories. I created my own rituals and ceremonial tools for feeling joy at the memory of my grandparents. In fact I share my joy with them every time I celebrate their memory.
I have included my Day of the Dead Artist's Statement below for those of you who need more explanation. But I encourage you to see the exhibit because it is very , very interesting to see so many examples of sacred spaces, ceremonial tools, and the implied rituals that accompany them.
My Grandparents and Pinwheels
Leigh Radtke 2008
My grandfather was a man who loved to laugh and eat Tootsie Rolls. My grandmother was a flapper in the twenties, a wife and mother in the forties and a grandmother in the sixties; that is where I come in. When I was a little girl my mother worked weekends so every Saturday my sister and I were dropped off at my grandparent’s house. My grandfather would let us eat way too many Tootsie Rolls then take us to the 5 &10 store to see what treasures could be had for 10 cents. It was on one such Saturday that we discovered pinwheels. My grandfather let us loose in the back yard to make them spin to the sound of his laughter and encouragement. We would twirl with arms outstretched, pinwheels whirrrrrring, till we collapsed with laughter onto the grass. The world tilted beneath us and my grandmother’s flowers swayed. We would spin till candy was not such a good idea, then grandmother would bring us toast, tease my grandfather for indulging us, and tell us stories of her artist father (our great grandfather) who was a painter and of our grandfather’s heroic deeds in WWII. Then she would plant our pinwheels in among her flowers to keep till next Saturday when we would spin and whirrrrrr again.
I have created pinwheels for my grandparents but I have also created a brightly flowered glow-in-the-dark pinwheel for you. Please pick it up and make it spin in honor of my grandparents. If you would, please place the pinwheel back in the box when you are done. Or if by any chance you have collapsed to the floor with laughter then stay to hear the stories of your own loved ones, have a friend return it for you.
